MATLAB: Load -ascii : inconsistent behavior

load -asciiMATLABtab delimited

I am trying to read a tab-delimited ascii file. It has 99 rows and 5 columns.
In R2012b, the command
load FILENAME.ext -ascii
correctly loads the file, producing a variable FILENAME of size 99 x 5.
On a different machine, with R2012a, the same command applied to the same file produces a variable FILENAME of size 1 x 495.
That is, under R2012a the load command is reading the file as a single line of values, rather than as a 2-dimensional array. Strangely, if I use the Import Wizard in R2012a, it immediately recognizes FILENAME as containing a 99 x 5 array of tab-delimited values.
I need to have this code work under both versions of Matlab. Any explanations for the inconsistent behavior?
FWIW the code also worked under earlier versions.
Thanks. Hal

Best Answer

Read ASCII files with LOAD had a bug in 2012a, when the old MacOS-9 linebreaks are used. Then load the file using fileread, replace char(13) by char(10) and save the resulting string with fopen + fwrite.
See: http://www.mathworks.com/support/bugreports/794792
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