MATLAB: Read Text File into a Matrix

matrixread data

I would like to be able to read a text file into matlab and turn it into a matrix. The text file would look like this:
%Joint Properties
% Format is %joint# x_coord y_coord xdof# ydof#
1 0 0 4 5
2 120 0 1 6
3 120 120 2 3
I would like to turn the numbers into a matrix. How would I do this?
Also, how would I then access a single column in this matrix?
Is there a way to have Matlab count the number of rows in the matrix?

Best Answer

% read in data
fid = fopen('filepath');
data = textscan(fid,'%f%f%f%f','HeaderLines',2,'CollectOutput',1);
data = data{:};
fid = fclose(fid);
% retrieve column 1
data(:,1)
% Number of rows 
size(data,1)
I assumed the example of the text file doesn't have intervealing blank lines.
Oleg
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