MATLAB: Extracting specific part from txt file

text file

I need to create column from attached txt file as follows;
a=[87.5;85;82.5;80];  %for each LAT/LON1/LON2/DLON/H
%The txt file's column number is variable.

Best Answer

It is difficult to understand what "for each .." means in your question. If you just need to extract the numbers that you specified, the following is one possible approach:
 content = fileread( 'trial.txt' ) ;
 matches = regexp( content, '[-\d\.]+(?=-\d)', 'match' ) ;
 data    = str2double( matches ) ;
which outputs
 >> data
 data =
   87.5000   85.0000   82.5000   80.0000
It may not be the most efficient in term of speed, but it is very concise.. could even be a one liner:
 data = str2double( regexp( fileread('trial.txt'), '[-\d\.]+(?=-\d)', 'match' )) ;
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