Development Environment

Overview

MATLAB provides many ways to load data from disk files or the clipboard into the workspace, a process called importing data, and to save workspace variables to a disk file, a process called exporting data. Your choice of which mechanism to use depends on two factors:

• The operation you are performing, that is, whether you are importing or exporting data
• The format of the data: text, binary, or a standard format such as HDF

Note    The easiest way to import data into MATLAB is to use the Import Wizard. When you use the Import Wizard, you do not need to know the format of the data. You simply specify the file that contains the data and the Import Wizard processes the file contents automatically. For more information, see Using the Import Wizard with Text Data and Using the Import Wizard with Binary Data Files. You can also use the Import Wizard to import HDF data. See Using the HDF Import Tool for more information.

Text Data

In text format, the data values are American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII) codes that represent alphabetic and numeric characters. ASCII text data can be viewed in a text editor. For more information about working with text data, see

• Importing Text Data
• Exporting ASCII Data

Binary Data

In binary format, the values are not ASCII codes and cannot be viewed in a text editor. Binary files contain data that represents images, sounds, and other information. For more information about working with binary data, see

• Importing Binary Data
• Exporting Binary Data

Other Formats

MATLAB also supports the importing of scientific data that uses the Hierarchical Data Format (HDF). For more information about working with HDF data, see

• Importing HDF Data
• Exporting MATLAB Data in an HDF File

Low-Level File I/O

MATLAB also supports C-style, low-level I/O functions that you can use with any data format. For more information, see Using Low-Level File I/O Functions.

Importing and Exporting Data

Importing Text Data