Loading ascii data file with headers

Hi,

I am having trouble loading a data file into matlab with some headers. Here is an sample of what I have:

Series_6_2
Sweep_6_2_1    4.924117200E+04   13:40:41.171
"Index"   "Distance[m]"      "I-tip[A]"      
      0    0.000000000E+00    1.647949222E-09
      1    3.100000000E-07    1.665649396E-09
      2    6.200000000E-07    1.679992701E-09
      3    9.300000000E-07    1.701660146E-09
      4    1.240000000E-06    1.721191412E-09
      5    1.550000000E-06    1.745300238E-09
      6    1.860000000E-06    1.777038627E-09
      7    2.170000000E-06    1.811218286E-09
      8    2.480000000E-06    1.844787545E-09
      9    2.790000000E-06    1.878662115E-09
     10    3.100000000E-06    1.914672865E-09
     11    3.410000000E-06    1.954650886E-09
     12    3.720000000E-06    1.990966725E-09

I would like to have just a matrix with the numerical values. Any ideas?

[Maryam Huck]

Hi, How to open the data, when the structure given above, repeats several time? i.e.:

Header = Parameters

Data

Header = Parameters

Data

Header = Parameters

Data

Header = Parameters

Data

How to then extract all the data, each in different rows ?

Answer 1

[Matt Kindig]

This should do it

fid = fopen('path/to/your/file.txt', 'rt');
Data = textscan(fid, '%d %f %f', 'headerLines', 3, 'CollectOutput', true);
fclose(fid);
Data= cell2mat( Data);

[David Polcari]

Quick follow up: I am trying to use inputdlg to prompt the user to enter the filename:

filename = input('Enter filename with extension: ','s');

I want to use filename in the rest of your lines but can't seem to get it to work. Any ideas?

[Iain]

uigetfile would be better than filename. Just remember to concatenate the path & filename it returns into "filename", then,

fid = fopen(filename,'rt');

Answer 2

[Cedric]

The following would be an option:

 [index, distance, tip_A] = textread('myFile.txt', '%d %f %f', 'headerlines', 3) ;

[David Polcari]

I actually have some text at the bottom of my file also. Any way for the function to read only the numerical values and ignore everything else? Like the matlab import tool does?

[Matt Kindig]

The textscan() function (that I've used below) will automatically stop once the pattern is no longer found, which means that it should ignore the text at the bottom of the file. I'm not sure about textread() though.

[Cedric]

Yes, until they implement the 'footerlines' option for TEXTREAD ;-), Matt's solution with TEXTSCAN is the way to go if you have a footer.

Answer 3

[itay]

i recommend you to use importdata. try it and tell me.