MATLAB Programming

6 Data Import and Export
Preferences for MATLAB in the Desktop Tools and Development Environment
documentation for more information.
When writing character data to a non-HDF5-based MAT-file using Unicode
encoding (the default), MATLAB checks if the data is 7-bit ASCII. If it is,
MATLAB writes the 7-bit ASCII character data to the MAT-file using 8 bits
per character (UTF-8 format), thus minimizing the size of the resulting file.
Any character data that is not 7-bit ASCII is written in 16-bit Unicode form
(UTF-16). This algorithm operates on a per-string basis.
Note You cannot read a Unicode encoded MAT-file with MATLAB versions
earlier than Version 7. To write a MAT-file that you will be able to read
with one of these versions, save to the file with Unicode character encoding
disabled.
For more information on how MATLAB saves specific ASCII data formats,
and on preventing loss or corruption of character data, see “Writing Character
Data” in the MATLAB External Interfaces documentation.
Optional Output Formats
You can choose from any of the following formats for your output file. If you do
not specify a format, MATLAB uses the binary MAT-file format.
Output File Format
Binary MAT-file (default)
8-digit ASCII
8-digit ASCII, tab delimited
16-digit ASCII
16-digit ASCII, tab delimited
Command
save filename
save filename -ascii
save filename -ascii -tabs
save filename -ascii -double
save filename -ascii -double -tabs
MATLAB Version 4 compatible save filename -v4
Saving in ASCII Format. When saving in any of the ASCII formats, consider
the following:
6-28