MATLAB: Import from .txt or .csv

csvMATLABnumericaltext filetext;

I am importing some large .csv files where I have textual column headers and row headers. I am using the readtext() function from the FEX for mixed-type files http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/10946. I am doing this to import the matrix into a large cell in Matlab from which I can separate my text and numeric data. My column headers are dates, which are fine and show up as text for my import. My row headers are financial CUSIPS, which sometimes contain a letter and show up as text, and other times contain all numbers (and begin with 0's) and then show up as numbers.
My questions – how can I import this typed of mixed data file preserving the format of all of my original data?
{[],'12/31/1999','01/03/2000';'88553510',1,1;'88579Y10',1,1;'00282410',1,1;}
shows up as
{[],'12/31/1999','01/03/2000';88553510,1,1;'88579Y10',1,1;00282410,1,1;}
Thanks a lot, Brian

Best Answer

Assuming the CSV file looks like this:
 ,12/31/1999,01/03/2000
 88553510,1,1
 88579Y10,1,1
 00282410,1,1
textscan (ship with MATLAB) should be sufficient. To skip the first (header) line, and then import three columns of comma-separated data, with the first row a text string and the other two rows containing numeric data:
 f = fopen ('data.csv');
 C = textscan(f, '%s %n %n', 'Delimiter', ',', 'HeaderLines', 1)
 fclose(f);
This will create a 1x3 cell array, which each member of the cell array being one of the rows of your CSV data.
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