MATLAB: Reading a text file: Skip lines in the middle of data

data importfscanfMATLABtext file

Hello,
I am trying to import data into an array from a text file that looks something like this:
 Header lines
Header lines
Header lines
Var1  Var2  Var3  Var4
1      2     3     4
1      2     3     4
1      2     3     4
1      2     3     4
1      2     3     4
mid data header lines
mid data header lines
Var1  Var2  Var3  Var4
1      2     3     4
1      2     3     4 
1      2     3     4
1      2     3     4
1      2     3     4
mid data header lines
mid data header lines
Var1  Var2  Var3  Var4
1      2     3     4
1      2     3     4
... etc until nData
I want to grab all of Var2 into one 1xndata array. The mid data header lines occurs every 5 lines (the real file is every 50 lines, I wanted to spare you). The header is no problem I can skip it and read Var2 up to the first mid data header. I cant figure out how to skip the mid data to continue the fscanf.

Best Answer

Thanks guys! I tried what you were all saying and came up with this, it gets the job done! I can now just call each data row as needed :
 %get the whole file
  file = fileread(filename);
  %change into line by line
  lines = regexp(file, '\n', 'split');
%extract data lines
k = headerlines + 1;
i = 1;
while k < length(lines)
    datalines(i) = lines(k);
    if mod(i,50) ==0
      k = k + middleLines ;
    end
      k = k +1;
      i = i +1;  
  end
%change data strings into numbers
for i = 1:1:length(datalines)
   numberscell(i) = textscan(char(datalines(i)), '%f');
end
%change cell into array
for i = 1:1:length(numberscell)
    numbers(i,:) = cell2mat(numberscell(i));
end
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