Why am I unable to open a file that contains two periods in its name using the FOPEN function in MATLAB 7.0 (R14)?

I have a file named "a.b.txt" in my $MATLAB\work directory (where $MATLAB is the MATLAB root directory on my machine), as returned by typing

matlabroot

at the MATLAB command prompt.)

 When I am in this directory, the following command:

fopen('a.b.txt')

works correctly. However, when I am in a different directory, the file is not found, and the command:

cd ..

fopen('a.b.txt')

does not open the file. The same steps open the file correctly in MATLAB 6.5.1 (R13SP1).

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

This bug has been fixed in Release 14 Service Pack 3 (R14SP3). For previous product releases, read below for any possible workarounds:

We have verified that there is a bug in the way that the FOPEN function in MATLAB 7.0 (R14) handles file names with more than one period.

As a workaround, specify the entire path to the file. For example, use:

fopen([matlabroot, '\work\a.b.txt'])