MATLAB: Does %c not read whitespaces with the TEXTREAD function

cMATLABtextread

Why does %c not read whitespaces with the TEXTREAD function?
I am trying to read a file using TEXTREAD. Here is an example input file:
 one two three four
 one two three four
I should be able to read this file using
[a, b] = textread('file', '%3c%3c%*[^\n]');
and expect the output to be:
 a=[ 'one'; 'one' ] and 
 b=[ ' tw'; ' tw'; ]
But I get
 a=[ 'one'; 'one' ] and
 b=[ 'two'; 'two' ]
It appears that the whitespace between the 'one' and 'two' is skipped.

Best Answer

This bug has been fixed for Release 14 (R14). For previous releases, please read below for any possible workarounds:
This is a bug in MATLAB that has been brought to the attention of our development staff so that it may be fixed in a future release of MATLAB.
As a workaround, you need to explicitly define the space as a whitespace character. You can do this by passing the 'whitespace' argument to the TEXTREAD command.
For example, your command line may look something like the following:
[a, b] = textread('file.m', '%3c%3c%*[^\n]','whitespace','');
Related Question