MATLAB: How to import a data file from a URL in MATLAB 7.1 (R14SP3)

Question

I have a standard data file (CSV, DLM, XLS, etc) on the web, and I would like to use one of the data import commands such as CSVREAD, DLMREAD, TEXTSCAN, XLSREAD, or IMPORTDATA on this data file.

Answer 1

The ability to import data from a URL is not available in MATLAB 7.1 (R14SP3).

To work around this issue, use URLWRITE to save the file locally, and then import it using data import functions. For example,

urlwrite(myURL,myFileName);
M=importdata(myFileName);