I'm having trouble implementing [folder_list] to randomly select a file from the current directory of the patch I'm in. You can see an example of what I'm doing below:

I banging [folder_list] to get the list of files in the directory, then using [list-drip] to find the total number of items in the list and then passing this number to [random] to pick a random file from the current file list using [list-idx] (which is from the list-abs library).

The problem I'm having is instead of outputting one item of the list (i.e. the directory of one file) pd outputs several. I'm not certain of what is going on. Have I misunderstood what data type [folder_list] is outputting (is it not a list?!). Any help would be very much appreciated.

Best,
Chris

It's not working because [folder_list] outputs a series of symbols, not a list. So your first [t l l] object doesn't receive a list with all of the filenames, but instead 21 individual symbols.

To solve the problem, you'll have to collect the symbols into a list. [list-extend] in list-abs can do this, although I prefer using [textfile] like this:

Which PD version are you using? The [text] object would be perfect for this, but it's not there in Extended.

Hi @LiamG thanks for you solution. I will test it out tonight when I have time. I've never really used [textfile] so this will help me with understanding it's functionality a bit better.

I'm using Pd extended so I'm presuming (from what you are saying) that I do not have access to the [text] object. But I'll check this out when I'm working on things tonight.

You could also just use a message box for this. "set" will clear it and "add2" will add atoms to the message.

@jancsika Could you explain this a little further? I don't quite understand how what you have suggested would work

@me-andmymonkey said:

@jancsika Could you explain this a little further? I don't quite understand how what you have suggested would work

Something like the following two options in the demo:
random-chooser-demo.pd

Gathering up the files into a list is relatively expensive (file i/o in addition to list copying). Selecting a random item is relatively cheap.

[list split] is probably cheaper, although if you use the message-box approach inside a subpatch that isn't visible it's probably not that big a difference. I personally prefer the message-box approach because the interface is clearer and more explicit.

Also-- if you want to make the accumulation of [folder_list] output cheaper you can use a message box:

random-chooser-demo2.pd

If you hide that message box inside a subpatch then no updates are sent to the GUI.

@me-andmymonkey This will cope with spaces in names in files and folders......
I am sure it is not the easiest way to do it.
folder_list.zip
You will have to modify it slightly if it is not Pd files that you want to open.
David.

Thanks @jancsika, I got your solution working nicely in my patch.

Also thanks @whale-av, I came across this implementation in another forum post you made. I wasn't able to make much sense of it when I looked at it but it is good have another way of going about these things.