Development Environment

Importing Delimited ASCII Data Files

If your data file uses a character other than a space as a delimiter, you have a choice of several import functions you can use. (See Table 6-2 for a complete list.) The simplest to use is the dlmread function.

For example, consider a file named ph.dat whose contents are separated by semicolons:

• 7.2;8.5;6.2;6.6
  5.4;9.2;8.1;7.2
  

To read the entire contents of this file into an array named A, enter

• A = dlmread('ph.dat', ';');
  

You specify the delimiter used in the data file as the second argument to dlmread. Note that, even though the last items in each row are not followed by a delimiter, dlmread can still process the file correctly. dlmread ignores space characters between data elements. So, the preceding dlmread command works even if the contents of ph.dat are

• 7.2;   8.5;       6.2;6.6
  5.4;   9.2   ;8.1;7.2
  

Importing Numeric Text Data

Importing Numeric Data with Text Headers