MATLAB: Extract from text file

text file

Hi, I am trying to use Matlab for this because I have ~300 files for which this needs to be done..
The data in the .txt file looks like this:
Event List
Patient Name: xyz Export Time: Thursday, April 11, 2013, 15:25:00 User Name: xyz Test ID: Name Time Duration Exam Start 00:00:00 00:00 Impedance – Impedance Values 00:00:00 00:00 Change – Montage Apply: 0bical.mtg 00:00:17 00:00 Calibration Off 00:00:18 00:00 Change – Montage Apply: 1doublebanana.mtg 00:00:36 00:00 . . .
I need a matrix file with 3 columns like this 00:00:00 00:00:00 Exam Start 00:00:00 00:00:00 Impedance – Impedance Values
i.e. 1) discard the first 7 lines.. 2) text goes into column 3 3) First values after text go into column 1 3) Second value + first value go into column 2
Is this possible?
Thanks, S

Best Answer

New version, taking into account your last comment.
 fname_in   = 'myFile.txt' ;
 fname_out  = 'myFile.xlsx' ;
 headerSize = 8 ;
 fid = fopen(fname_in, 'r') ;
 % - Discard header.
 for k = 1 : headerSize
    if feof(fid)
      error('Structure discrepancy in %s', fname_in) ;
    end
    fgetl(fid) ;
 end
 % - Extract/process content.
 buffer  = cell(1e6, 3) ;                         % Cheap prealloc.. 
 lineCnt = 0 ;
 while ~feof(fid)
    lineCnt = lineCnt + 1 ;
    line = fgetl(fid) ;
    lStr = line(1:end-15) ;                       % Label string.
    dStr = line(end-13:end-6) ;                   % Date string.
    tStr= line(end-4:end) ;                       % Time string.
    fprintf('|%s|%s|%s|\n', dStr, tStr, lStr) ;   % Just for testing.
    buffer(lineCnt, :) = {dStr, tStr, lStr} ;
 end
 fclose(fid) ;
 buffer = buffer(1:lineCnt,:) ;                   % Truncate prealloc.
 % - Export to XLSX.
 xlswrite(fname_out, buffer) ;
You might want to improve the prealloc, adding blocks of cells when/if the initial size is too small. Note that this solution assumes the time stamp (date, time) to have always the same structure.
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