MATLAB: How to use textscan to read data with missing values

Question

I found it is not possible to use textscan to import a .txt file while the data itself contains missing values.

So for example, I have a test.txt, where * represents missing data(empty) and the delimiter is just whitespace:

1 2 3 4

5 6 A *

7 8 A *

9 * * 10

Is there any exports can help me?? Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Does the file contain '*' as markers for empty value, or did you insert the stars here for display purposes only?

If there are no values in the real file, if a value is missing:

Data = textscan(FID, '%f%f%f%f', 'Delimiter', ' ', 'EmptyValue', Inf);

If there are stars in the file, you could use an intermediate step:

Str = fileread(FileName);
Str = strrep(Str, '*', '');
Data = textscan(Str, '%f%f%f%f', 'Delimiter', ' ', 'EmptyValue', Inf);