Matlab not reading text file

Question

I'm having some trouble uploading a file on Matlab. I've loaded text files many times before either by using "load data" option under the file menu or with a command. The file I'm trying to read has column labels, numeric data and the first three columns consist of text data. When I attempted to upload the file, it said that file only consisted of one column and uploaded all the information in one column rather than 6 different columns. In the text file, the columns are separated by tabs and I set the delimiter as tabs.

Does anyone have any idea why it would upload the info into one column rather than in separate columns?

Thanks!

Answer 1

From the details you provided about the shape of your text-file I'm guessing it has the following form :

label1    info1    text1    1    1.1    3.1
label2    info2    text2    2    2.1    3.2
lebel3    info3    text3    3    3.1    3.3
...

You can load all this data using a loop and the fscanf function and simple loops.

If N is the number of lines of your text-file the following code might work for you:

f=fopen('test.txt');

for k=1:N
    for i=1:3
        a{k,i} = fscanf(f,'%s',1);
    end
b(k,:) = fscanf(f,['%f' '%f' '%f'],3);
end

fclose(f);

Then you will have one cell-array of strings a:

a = 

'label1'    'info1'    'text1'
'label2'    'info2'    'text2'
'lebel3'    'info3'    'text3'

And one array with numeric data b:

b =

1.0000    1.1000    3.1000
2.0000    2.1000    3.2000
3.0000    3.1000    3.3000

In order to get further information I advise you to read this page.