MATLAB: How to skip first three lines in Matlab and read the next line until fixed character appears

delete linesdlmread

I have a input txt file as shown below:
*Heading
 U:/Mesh_Sphere_faible.inp
*Node
1, 0.061725, 0.271605, 0.41523577
2, 0.05795391, 0.39902727, 0.29566634
3, 0.012345, 0.054321, 0.083047155
*Element, type=C3D10, ELSET=PART1
1, 150, 1278, 1280, 1282, 3738, 3742, 3740, 
3739, 3741, 3743
2, 62, 700, 702, 704, 2342, 3747, 3745, 
3744, 3746, 3748
3, 242, 1863, 1866, 1865, 3749, 3753, 3751, 
3750, 3752, 3754
I want to read the data after line of '*Node'. I have tried 
A=dlmread('Mesh_Sphere_faible.dat','',4,0)
but always stopped at line:
2, 0.05795391, 0.39902727, 0.29566634
How can I realise it?
And I also want to read until line
*Element, type=C3D10, ELSET=PART1
appears.
What can I do?

Best Answer

This will do it:
% Open the file.
fullFileName = fullfile(pwd, 'example.txt')
fileID = fopen(fullFileName, 'rt');
% Read the first 3 lines of the file.
textLine = fgetl(fileID); % Read and throw away line 1
textLine = fgetl(fileID); % Read and throw away line 2
textLine = fgetl(fileID); % Read and throw away line 3
data = [];
while ischar(textLine)
	% Read the next line.
	textLine = fgetl(fileID);
	% Print out what line we're operating on.
	fprintf('%s\n', textLine);
	if ~contains(textLine, 'Element')
		numbers = sscanf(textLine, '%f,')
		data = [data; numbers'];
	else
		break;
	end
end
% All done reading all lines, so close the file.
fclose(fileID);
% Show in command window.
data
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