ESRI's shapefile to Matlab

Question

I am looking for a function to read/write points, lines and polygons from ESRI's shapefile format (as used in Arcview) for use in Matlab

Answer 1

From the Matlab mapping toolbox, use the shaperead function

For example download the NOAA Interstate Highway shape file here, extract and then read data into Matlab using the function, S = shaperead('in101503.shp');

Answer 2

If you do not have the Matlab mapping toobox, the very useful m_map package now has an m_shaperead() function which does a good job of reading shapefiles.

X = m_shaperead('filename'); % for filename.(dbf,shp,...)