Error with dlmread reading to many columns

I'm having a problem with dlmread where I'm specifying a range for it to read a csv file and it reads beyond that range.

My data looks like this: Date,Time,Intensity (mm/h),Precipitation since start (mm),Radar reflectivity (dBz),Number of detected particles,Temperature in sensor (°C),Spectrum 21.09.2012,14:34:00,0.000,0.00,-9.999,0,23,<SPECTRUM>ZERO</SPECTRUM>

My code looks like: rowcolrange = [1 2 1 6]; spdshtrange = 'C2..G2'; delimiter = ','; data = dlmread(filepathandname,delimiter,rowcolrange);

The error looks like this: ??? Error using ==> dlmread at 145 Mismatch between file and format string. Trouble reading number from file (row 1, field 8) ==> <SPEC

So it's trying to read the 8th field when I specify it not too. Why is this? Any help would be great!

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

everything in the file must be numeric for you to be able to use dlmread, even if the non-numeric data is in a column you are not trying to read.

You should be using textscan()

[James]

Thanks, wasn't aware of that!