How to resolve a relative directory path to canonical path in MATLAB/Octave

Question

It happens that your application encounters a directory path that is relative to current folder or uses double dot for navigation, e.g. C:\A\B\..\C. This obviously is equivalent to the canonical path C:\A\C. How can one resolve the path to its canonical form?

Answer 1

This one uses the java io interface:

jFile=java.io.File(iPath);
oPath=jFile.getCanonicalPath;   

It wouldn't need to change matlab's directory. It has other useful methods that may be found here.

Answer 2

The simplest way I know to convert a path to its canonical form is using cd command:

oPath = cd(cd(iPath));

Note that this would fail if the path does not exist on your file system.