MATLAB: Importing .txt file using textscan

data importMATLABtext filetextscan

Good Afternoon, I am trying to import data from a text file in order to plot, and need help writing a scipt.

the text file has text as well as numerical data within it so the load function wont work.

I don't fully understand how the textscan function works, my text data has the first 4 rows with just text, and then the columnheaders in each column, (row 5). Every row past this is just space separated numerical data.

How would I write the command out as to import the data into a usable format to plot with? The data is seprated by spaces (no commas)

Best Answer

fid = fopen('YourFile.txt','rt');
datacell = textscan(fid, '%f%f%f', 'HeaderLines',5);
fclose(fid);

After that, datacell{1} is a vector containing the first column, datacell{2} is a vector containing the second column, datacell{3} is a vector containing the third column.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Reading big textfile with textscan

Solution One

You do not need to delete the first ten rows from the file, because textscan has an option to ignore header lines, so you can use this instead:

Out = textscan(....,'HeaderLines',10);

To read 1280 columns of data you need to define this in the format string, so the final code could be something like this:

fmt = repmat('%f',1,1280);
fid = fopen('textfile.txt','rt')
out = textscan(fid, fmt, 'Delimiter',',', 'HeaderLines',10);
fclose(fid);

Solution Two

If the data in the matrix is all numeric (note the header lines do not need to be) then you could use the much simpler dlmread instead, something a bit like this:

out = dlmread('textfile.txt',',',10,0);

Examples

% textscan
fmt = repmat('%f',1,5);
fid = fopen('temp.txt','rt');
out_txt = textscan(fid, fmt, 'Delimiter',',', 'HeaderLines',3);
fclose(fid);
out_txt = cell2mat(out_txt)
% dlmread
out_dlm = dlmread('temp.txt',',',3,0)

display this in the command window:

out_txt =
     0     1     2     3     4
     5     6     7     8     9
out_dlm =
     0     1     2     3     4
     5     6     7     8     9

The sample text file that I used is attached here:

MATLAB: I want to delete all the headerlines and delimiters from the data in the below attached text file

The best solution is probably to read your entire file as text, then remove the header lines, then parse them with textscan.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: Reading big textfile with textscan

MATLAB: I want to delete all the headerlines and delimiters from the data in the below attached text file

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