How to read alphanumer​ic(alphabe​tic+numeri​c) columns to MatLab?

I want to read data from a 'txt' file to MatLab. Please note that 3 columns of this 'txt' file consist of numerical values and the remaining column is an alphanumeric column (eg: 01f500000309, 01f50000030a ). I want to extract all those 4 columns to MatLab with their headers. I tried tblread,tblwrite but none of them worked. Any suggestions?

[Stephen23]

Your comments to Per Isakson's answer indicate that it really would be simpler if you uploaded the data file, or a shortened version of it, so that we can try it for ourselves. Please make a comment here (to your question), with an upload of the data file.

Answer 1

[per isakson]

Try textscan

    fid = fopen( 'cssm.txt' );
    cac = textscan( fid, '%f%f%s'          ...
                  , 'CollectOutput', true  ...
                  , 'Delimiter'    , ','   );
    [~] = fclose( fid );

where cssm.txt contains

     1, 2, 01f500000309
     3, 4, 01f50000030a

&nbsp

    >> cac{:}
    ans =
         1     2
         3     4
    ans = 
        '01f500000309'
        '01f50000030a '

&nbsp

and see textscan, Read formatted data from text file or string

&nbsp

Addendum

    fid = fopen( 'cssm.txt' );
    hdr = textscan( fid, '%s%s%s%s', 1     ... 
                  , 'CollectOutput', true  ...
                  , 'Delimiter'    , ','   );

    cac = textscan( fid, '%f%f%f%s'        ...
                  , 'CollectOutput', true  ...
                  , 'Delimiter'    , ','   );
    [~] = fclose( fid );

    hdr{:}
    cac{:}

outputs

    ans = 
        'Num1'    'Num2'    'Num3'    'Char1 '
    ans =
        17     1     2
        18     3     4
    ans = 
        '01f500000309'
        '01f50000030a'

where cssm.txt contains

    Num1,Num2,Num3,Char1 
    17,  1, 2, 01f500000309
    18,  3, 4, 01f50000030a

&nbsp

Second addendum

    >> importdata cssm.txt
    ans = 
        'Num1 Num2 Char1  ABCDEFGHIJK  ABCDEFGH  ABCDEF  ABCDEFGH '
        '1  2  xxxxxxxxxxxx  192.168.20.2  UDP  60  01f600000234'
        '3  4  yyyyyyyyyyyy  192.168.20.2  UDP  60  01f600000234'

The script below outputs

    ans = 
        'ABCDEFGHIJK'    'ABCDEFGH'    'ABCDEF'    'ABCDEFGH'
    ans = 
        '192.168.20.2'    'UDP'
        '192.168.20.2'    'UDP'
    ans =
        60
        60
    ans = 
        '01f600000234'
        '01f600000234'
    >>
    fid = fopen( 'cssm.txt' );
    hdr = textscan( fid,'%*s%*s%*s%s%s%s%s', 1 ... 
                    ,   'CollectOutput', true  );
    cac = textscan( fid,'%*s%*s%*s%s%s%f%s', inf ... 
                    ,   'CollectOutput', true  );
    [~] = fclose( fid );
    hdr{:}
    cac{:}

where cssm.txt contains

    Num1 Num2 Char1  ABCDEFGHIJK  ABCDEFGH  ABCDEF  ABCDEFGH 
    1  2  xxxxxxxxxxxx  192.168.20.2  UDP  60  01f600000234
    3  4  yyyyyyyyyyyy  192.168.20.2  UDP  60  01f600000234

[Chathu]

Thanks alot for your response. text scan worked !!! But the heading has been misaligned (meaning further to the right,3 of the column headers have gone to the very last column) Do you know how to format the header?

[per isakson]

I'm not sure I understand. However,

• "the heading has been misaligned" How?
• my example contains two numerical columns, not three as in your question.
• I added another example of using textscan to my answer. Hopefully, this one is closer to your file. Header and data block must be read in two steps because they require different format strings

[Chathu]

@ per isakson- thank you so much for your rapid response.Really appreciate your effort. I am sorry if i confuse you though.

Let me be more specific with my question. I actually want to extract 4 columns from the text file.(i just realized that i haven't tell you that i have 7 columns in total and want to extract only 4 columns from that- really sorry about that).

Actually your first code worked very well( i was able to extract all 7 columns with their headers. But headers are misaligned).

Pls see below for the output i obtained by using your 1st code: (kindly note that i manually extracted 4th,5th,6th, and 7th column which were misaligned; i just want to give you the real picture here)

      'ABCDEFGHIJK           ABCDEFGH ABCDEF ABCDEFGH'
'192.168.20.2          UDP      60     01f600000234'

My qu's are: (1). How to align the headers properly?

(2). suppose i want to extract 4th,5th,6th and 7th columns. Can i just say?

    A=fopen('test.txt')

    A(4:end)

[Stephen23]

Read the documentation for fopen. What do you think you would get from your suggested code

A=fopen('test.txt')
A(4:end)

?

According to the documentation, this function " returns an integer file identifier equal to or greater than 3... If fopen cannot open the file, then fileID is -1 ". The value A does not contain the data of the file, only a scalar value to identify which file has been opened.

[per isakson]

@Chathu, Still confused about what you have and what you want, I have added another example based on your recent comment. That should be enough for you to solve your problem with the help of the documentation on textscan. If you have the Stat Toolbox you might want to look at dataset

[Chathu]

@Stephen- got your point. Thanks for your reply.

@per isakson- thank you so much for your responses. Really admire your continuous support. Actually, my data set is huge. I would have emailed you the data set rather than elaborating it. I really apologize for confusing you.

"textscan" (as mentioned in the 2nd addendum ) worked quite closer to my interest. Thanks a million for your guidance.

Answer 2

[Image Analyst]

Try readtable() if you have R2013b or later:

t = readtable(filename);

[Chathu]

Thanks for replying. Unfortunately my MatLab is little older than above said version.