unzip

Extract contents of zip file

Syntax

unzip(zipfilename)

unzip(zipfilename,outputfolder)

filenames = unzip(___)

Description

unzip(zipfilename) extracts the archived contents of zipfilename into the current folder, preserving the attributes and timestamps of each file. unzip can extract files from your local system or from an Internet URL.

If a file exists with the same name and the file is not read-only, MATLAB^® overwrites it. Otherwise, MATLAB issues a warning. On Microsoft^® Windows^® platforms, the hidden, system, and archive attributes are not set.

unzip(zipfilename,outputfolder) extracts zipfilename into outputfolder. If outputfolder does not exist, MATLAB creates it.

filenames = unzip(___) returns a cell array of character vectors containing the names of the extracted files.

Examples

Extract Zip File to New Folder

Create a zip file and extract it to the folder archive.

Create the zip file examples.zip containing example MAT-files.

zip('examples.zip','*.mat',...
    fullfile(matlabroot,'toolbox','matlab','demos'))

Extract examples.zip to the folder archive.

exampleFiles = unzip('examples.zip','archive')

exampleFiles = 1×41 cell
    {'archive\accidents.mat'}    {'archive\airfoil.mat'}    {'archive\airlineResults.mat'}    {'archive\cape.mat'}    {'archive\census.mat'}    {'archive\clown.mat'}    {'archive\detail.mat'}    {'archive\dmbanner.mat'}    {'archive\durer.mat'}    {'archive\earth.mat'}    {'archive\fatalities.mat'}    {'archive\fluidtemp.mat'}    {'archive\flujet.mat'}    {'archive\gatlin.mat'}    {'archive\gatlin2.mat'}    {'archive\integersignal.mat'}    {'archive\logo.mat'}    {'archive\mandrill.mat'}    {'archive\mapredout.mat'}    {'archive\membrane.mat'}    {'archive\mri.mat'}    {'archive\noisyecg.mat'}    {'archive\patients.mat'}    {'archive\penny.mat'}    {'archive\quake.mat'}    {'archive\seamount.mat'}    {'archive\spine.mat'}    {'archive\stocks.mat'}    {'archive\tetmesh.mat'}    {'archive\topo.mat'}    {'archive\topography.mat'}    {'archive\trimesh2d.mat'}    {'archive\trimesh3d.mat'}    {'archive\truss.mat'}    {'archive\usapolygon.mat'}    {'archive\usastates.mat'}    {'archive\usborder.mat'}    {'archive\vibesdat.mat'}    {'archive\west0479.mat'}    {'archive\wind.mat'}    {'archive\xpmndrll.mat'}

Extract Zip File from URL

Download and extract a zip file from a URL to a local folder.

Suppose you have the zip file example_file.zip stored at the URL http://example.com/example_file.zip. Download and extract the file to the desired local folder, example_folder.

url = 'http://example.com/example_file.zip';
unzip(url, 'example_folder');

Input Arguments

zipfilename — Name of zip file

character vector | string scalar

Name of zip file to extract from, specified as a character vector or a string scalar. If zipfilename has no extension, MATLAB searches for zipfilename appended with .zip.

zipfilename must include a path relative to the current folder or an absolute path.

If zipfilename is a URL, zipfilename must include the protocol type (for example, http://). MATLAB downloads the URL to the temporary folder on your system, and then it deletes the URL on cleanup.

unzip does not support password-protected or encrypted zip archives.

Data Types: char | string

outputfolder — Target folder

character vector | string scalar

Target folder for the extracted files, specified as a character vector or a string scalar.

Data Types: char | string

Tips

• To extract a zip file that contains non-7-bit ASCII characters, extract the file on a machine that has the appropriate language/encoding settings.

Compatibility Considerations

unzip will overwrite the first extraction of a file extracted twice

Behavior changed in R2021a

• Starting in R2021a on Windows, if you call unzip twice on a read-only file created within MATLAB, unzip will overwrite the first extraction of the file without warning.

unzip will replace invalid characters in the pathname with an underscore

Behavior changed in R2021a

• Starting in R2021a on Windows, unzip replaces each invalid character in the pathname with an underscore to successfully extract the entry. Invalid characters include <>:*?|" .

unzip determines file permissions based on the file's Unix mode

Behavior changed in R2021a

• Starting in R2021a on Linux^® and macOS, when unzip extracts an existing file with a Unix mode of 0 in a zip archive, the extracted file has both GroupWrite and GroupRead permissions.

unzip selects the permissions of the file rather than those of its symbolic link

Behavior changed in R2021a

• Starting in R2021a on Linux and macOS, if you pass a symbolic link to a file to unzip, it saves the file permissions of the file itself in the archive rather than those of the symbolic link.