MATLAB: Delimiting a text file like “Text to columns”

delimittext file

Hello, I am trying to import data from a Text file (.txt). This data has a single column of mixed (numeric and string) data that is | (bar) delimited. My goal is to import this data and seperate each delimited portion into a seperate columns while maintaining the rows. Essentially, I am trying to do the Excel "Text to columns" with MATLAB. Thank you

Best Answer

%open file
fid = fopen(YourFile,'rt');
%figure out how many columns are there
firstline = fgetl(fid);
ncol = 1 + sum(firstline == '|');
%reset to beginning of file
fseek(fid,0,0);
%read data
indata = textscan(fid,repmat('%s',1,ncol),'Delimiter','|','CollectOutput',1);
%close file
fclose(fid);
The result will be indata, a cell array of strings.
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