MATLAB Programming

6 Data Import and Export
character. The individual data items can be alphabetic or numeric characters
or a mix of both.
The text file can also contain one or more lines of text, called header lines, or
can use text headers to label each column or row. The following example
illustrates a tab-delimited text file with header text and row and column
headers.
To find out how your data is formatted, view it in a text editor. After you
determine the format, find the sample in the table below that most closely
resembles the format of your data. Then read the topic referred to in the table
for information on how to import that format.
Table6-1
ASCIIDataFileFormats
Data Format Sample
1 2 3 4 5
6 7 8 9 10
1; 2; 3; 4; 5
6; 7; 8; 9; 10
or
1, 2, 3, 4, 5
6, 7, 8, 9, 10
File
Extension
.txt
.dat
or other
.txt
.dat
.csv
or other
Description
See “Importing Numeric Text
Data” on page 6-78 or “Using
the Import Wizard” on page
6-9 for information.
See “Importing Delimited
ASCII Data Files” on page
6-79 or “Using the Import
Wizard” on page 6-9 for
information.
6-76