MATLAB Programming

6 Data Import and Export
• “Data from the System Clipboard” on page 6-5
• “Information from the Internet” on page 6-5
Binary Data from a MATLAB Session
Using the MATLAB save and load functions, you can store all or part of the
data in your MATLAB workspaces to disk, and then read that data back
into MATLAB at a later time.
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 in MATLAB, see
• “Importing Text Data” on page 6-75
• “Exporting Text Data” on page 6-84
These sections also describe how to import and export to XML documents.
Graphics Files
MATLAB imports and exports images from many standard graphics
file formats, including the Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Graphics
Interchange Format (GIF), Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG), and
Portable Network Graphics (PNG) formats.
Audio and Audio/Video Data
MATLAB provides functions to enable you to interact with the following types
of audio and audio/video files:
• NeXT/SUN SPARCstation sound
• Microsoft WAVE sound
• Audio/Video Interleaved (AVI)
• Windows-compatible sound devices
• Audio player and recorder objects
6-4