The readtable command is not working and returns this error. Error using readtable (line 517) Unrecognized field name "text".

Good morning,

I am using version 2024b, and when I try to use readtable on a CSV file, I get the error mentioned above. I also tried with other tables, and the file is not corrupted. The function works correctly with the same file format on my laptop, where I have version 2023b.

I investigated the issue, and it seems the error originates in the readtable function at line:

514 t = func.validateAndExecute(filename,varargin{:});

where it returns a list of errors:

Error in matlab.io.internal.FastVarOpts>getOptsStructWithDefaults (line 874)
        s = defaults.text;
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.internal.FastVarOpts/getVarOptsStruct (line 199)
                    s{ii} = getOptsStructWithDefaults(types{idx(ii)},C{idx(ii)},obj.DefaultDatetimeLocale);
                            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.text.internal.TabularTextReader/initTextParser (line 255)
                    optionsStruct = rdr.Options.fast_var_opts.getVarOptsStruct(1:numVars);
                                    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.text.internal.TabularTextReader (line 77)
            rdr.initTextParser(args);
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.internal.functions.DetectImportOptionsText/setVarNames (line 319)
                rdr = matlab.io.text.internal.TabularTextReader(tempOpts, ...
                      ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.internal.functions.DetectImportOptionsText/getTextOpts (line 80)
            opts = func.setVarNames(opts,supplied);
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.internal.functions.DetectImportOptionsText/execute (line 34)
            opts = func.getTextOpts(supplied);
                   ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.internal.functions.DetectImportOptions/execute (line 80)
                    opts = [e-mail](supplied);
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.internal.functions.ReadTable/execute (line 35)
            func.Options = [e-mail](supplied);
                           ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Error in matlab.io.internal.functions.ExecutableFunction/validateAndExecute (line 68)
            [varargout{1:nargout}] = func.execute(supplied,additionalArgs{:});
                                     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Thank you very much for your attention and for any help you can provide

[Cris LaPierre]

Please share the result of the following:

which readtable

and

which readtable -all

[Mike Croucher]

Can you share the .csv file?

[Matteo Parodi]

>> which readtable

/usr/local/MATLAB/R2024b/toolbox/matlab/iofun/readtable.m

>> which readtable -all

/usr/local/MATLAB/R2024b/toolbox/matlab/iofun/readtable.m

/usr/local/MATLAB/R2024b/toolbox/shared/io/general/+matlab/+io/@ImportOptions/ImportOptions.m % matlab.io.ImportOptions method

[Matteo Parodi]

@Mike Croucher I believe you're right because if I remove all the data, the table is read correctly. I created a minimal table that it fails to read, where it correctly recognizes the header rows but not the first row of data.

[Cris LaPierre]

I was curious because of this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/matlab/comments/10lgbiv/unrecognized_field_name_text_cannot_figure_out/

They reported the same error message as you. They had another function called readtable on the path, so they were not calling the correct readtable function.

I'm not able to reproduce the error in R2024b. I tested here (Linux) as well as on my desktop version (Win11)

T = readtable('Untitled 1.csv')

T = 1x6 table
    Project     Individual       AltId      TimePoint                         InputIds                            freesurfer_6_0_0_aparc_thickness_GUID  
    ________    ___________    _________    _________    ___________________________________________________    _________________________________________

    {'nini'}    {'333_333'}    2.223e+05     {'m00'}     {'4vdfbvdb7-4sbfd6-4fabf-93baerfad-bbeafaaa42aber'}    {'0aaberbcd-2aeb7-4aer-9aber-7abr4c38e4'}

[Matteo Parodi]

It seems that it doesn’t recognize those cells that need to be interpreted as cells. Is there a way to reinstall this component without uninstalling and reinstalling all of MATLAB?

[Stephen23]

This is what occurs with R2024b on Win11:

I wonder if this has something to do with the OS.

[Walter Roberson]

That's odd. matlab.io.internal.FastVarOpts contains

persistent defaults
if isempty(defaults)
    defaults.numeric     = makeOptsStruct(matlab.io.NumericVariableImportOptions);
    defaults.datetime    = makeOptsStruct(matlab.io.DatetimeVariableImportOptions');
    defaults.datetime.FillValue = complex(NaN,0);
    defaults.duration    = makeOptsStruct(matlab.io.DurationVariableImportOptions');
    defaults.categorical = makeOptsStruct(matlab.io.CategoricalVariableImportOptions');
    defaults.text        = makeOptsStruct(matlab.io.TextVariableImportOptions');
    defaults.logical     = makeOptsStruct(matlab.io.LogicalVariableImportOptions');
end

and then has a switch() with

    case 'char'
        s = defaults.text;
        s.FillValue = zeros(0);

The defaults.txt field is set in the isempty(defaults) block. For that field to have been skipped in the assignments, defaults would have to have been on-empty. But it is a persistent variable, local to the function, and nothing outside of that isempty() block writes to defaults

It would be worth putting in a breakpoint at the isempty() test and examining to see what defaults is.

[Matteo Parodi]

Good morning. I have no idea why, but this morning it started working (I had tried restarting it yesterday as well). I don’t know what happened, but I hope it doesn’t happen again. I will close the question.

Thank you all very much.