MATLAB: Error: MAT file cannot be loaded because it contains duplicate variables

.mat fileinputloadoutputsave

I saved 10 very large MAT files that contain simulation results (each is the result of running the same script, with different input parameters, on 10 separate nodes of a supercomputer). For some reason, one of these files (the second one that was saved) has a problem, and MATLAB gives the following error message: "MAT file cannot be loaded because it contains duplicate variables." However, all 10 of the MAT files that were created contain the same variables and there are no duplicate variables in any of the other MAT files.

I have two questions: (1) Is there any workaround to access the data in this MAT file? (2) Does anyone know how this might have happened so I can avoid it in the future?

Best Answer

It turns out the problem was that MATLAB closed before the MAT file was finished saving, so it was just corrupted. The solution was (unfortunately) to just recompute and save it again.

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MATLAB: MAT files

p=load matfile1.mat
q=load matfile2.mat
save newmatfile.mat

MATLAB: How to recover data from a corrupt MAT-file

The issue might be caused by the presence of a corrupt zero-byte tag in the MAT-file. If this is the case, one might be able to extract the data from the MAT-file until a corrupt zero-byte tag is reached.

Please download the following SPLITMAT file in your current folder of MATLAB. Also, please ensure that the corruptMATFile is in the same current folder.

Then use the command as detailed below:

splitmat corruptMATFileName % Do not include the .mat extension

The above command will generate "n" MAT-files: corruptMATFileName_1.mat through corruptMATFileName_n.mat, each containing a variable contained in the original MAT-file.

If this command does not work, you may also try the following syntax to recover non-corrupted variables from the MAT-file:

>> load('<corrupted_file>.mat', '<uncorrupted_variable>');

Best Answer

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