MATLAB: Is there an example of how to save column-separated data under the column header name in MATLAB

aanasciiextractingfilefromheaderMATLAB

If my data looks like:
 H1  H2  H3  H4
 0   1.0  5   6
 1   2.3  7   8
 2   3.2  9   1
 3   4.7  2   3
I want the data to be saved in MATLAB as:
whos
               Name        Size       Elements     Bytes    Density   Complex
                 H1       4 by 1             4        32       Full      No 
                 H2       4 by 1             4        32       Full      No 
                 H3       4 by 1             4        32       Full      No 
                 H4       4 by 1             4        32       Full      No
Grand total is 16 elements using 128 bytes
H1
 H1 =
      0
      1
      2
      3
H2
 H2 =
     1.0000
     2.3000
     3.2000
     4.7000
H3
 H3 =
      5
      7
      9
      2
H4
 H4 =
      6
      8
      1
      3

Best Answer

You can use IMPORTDATA to import data like this. For help with IMPORTDATA, type the following at the MATLAB command prompt:
help importdata
You could also use the following example:
Here is an example of how to read a data file with columns into MATLAB variable names. The variable names in MATLAB match the column headers of the data file.
Save this as test.dat:
 H1  H2  H3  H4
 0   1.0  5   6
 1   2.3  7   8
 2   3.2  9   1
 3   4.7  2   3
Save this as test.m:
% get a file handle
fid=fopen('test.dat','r');
% read in the first line
line = fgetl(fid);
% parse the line for variable names
if(~isempty(line))
    zz = 1;
    line_size = size(line,2);
    tmpstring = [];
    varlist = [];
    while(zz <= line_size)
      % assume the variable names are separated by spaces
      if (real(line(zz)) ~= 32)
        tmpstring = [tmpstring line(zz) ];
        zz = zz+1;
      else
        if(~isempty(varlist))
          varlist = str2mat(varlist,tmpstring);
        else
          varlist = str2mat(tmpstring);
        end
        tmpstring = [];
        % increment the list until the next non-space
        while(zz < line_size & real(line(zz)) == 32 )
          zz = zz+1;
        end
      end
    end
    if(~isempty(tmpstring))
      varlist = str2mat(varlist,tmpstring);
    end
end
tmpmatrix = fscanf(fid,'%f %f %f %f',[4,inf])';
fclose(fid);
% assign the variable names
for(zz = 1:size(varlist,1))
    eval( [ varlist(zz,:) ' = tmpmatrix(:, ' num2str(zz) ');'])
end
clear ans fid line line_size tmpmatrix tmpstring varlist zz
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