import specific columns and range of rows from .dat file

Question

How would I import the data from the fourth row from the following .dat file:

#0  Date-time:  07/06/2011 09:13:53
#1  Recorder:   10T2607
#2  File type:  1
#3  Columns:    3
#4  Channels:   1
#5  Field separation:   0
#6  Decimal point:  0
#7  Date def.:  0   0
#8  Time def.:  0
#9  Channel 1:  Temperature(°C) Temp(°C)    3   1
#11 Reconvertion:   0
#19 Line color: 1   2   3   4
#30 Trend Type Number:  1
#33 Limit Temp. Corr. OTCR: 0
1   07.04.11 08:00:00   17,433
2   07.04.11 08:05:00   17,446
3   07.04.11 08:10:00   17,458
4   07.04.11 08:15:00   17,458

So, following the line that begins with #33 I would like to import 17,433 (which should be 17.433) then 17,446 and so on. I have tried to use textscan and headerlines by specifying that the data begins on line 13:

filename = 'Folder\data.dat');
fid = fopen(filename);
data = textscan(fid,'%f\t%f\t%f\t%f\n','Headerlines',13);
fclose(fid);

However, this does not work (in the sense that MATLAB returns an empty array). I guess this is due to the second and third column not being a floating point number, however, it does not work when I specify it to be a string either. What should I try next?

Answer 1

First, note that you have 14 headerlines.

For the data import, you can try the following:

filename = 'Folder\data.dat';
fid = fopen(filename);
data = textscan(fid,'%f\t%s\t%s\t%s','Headerlines',14);
a = cellfun(@(x) str2num(strrep(x, ',', '.')), data{4});
fclose(fid);

This results in

a =
   17.4330
   17.4460
   17.4580
   17.4580