Read multiple txt files and save them according to their name

Hello,

I would like to read multiple text files with names like A16.txt, B64.txt and save them like matrices in Matlab. Each of the files look like this below:

Time [s] Deformation Probe (X) [mm] Deformation Probe (Y) [mm] Deformation Probe (Z) [mm] Deformation Probe (Total) [mm]

1 1. -2.05900494e-002 9.53490478e-002 -5.00916689e-002 9.67559114e-002

2 2. -9.77241325e-003 0.06292072e-002 0.94899105e-003 5.13229044e-002

3 3. 5.98193922e-003 -8.41211991e-003 6.169048816 4.169208785

4 4. 2.79957587e-003 -8.3195684e-004 5.185089469 2.185214371

5 5. 4.77241325e-003 -5.06292072e-002 -1.94899105e-003 3.13229044e-002

6 6. 5.05900494e-002 -2.53490478e-002 2.00916689e-002 3.67559114e-002

7 7. -4.03850328e-003 5.24337929e-003 -5.280406982 5.280571362

8 8. -1.38934723e-003 3.12915198e-003 -2.274678171 2.274854119

Could you help me with it? Below is an example of script which reads it, but incorrently and I was not able to correct it.

d=dir('*.txt');  % all .txt files in working directory
N=length(d)     % how many did we find?
A=zeros(24,N);   % allocate for 24 points of data 1 column/file


for k=1:N
    [fid,msg]=fopen(d(k).name,'r');  % open for read permission
    if fid<0, error(['Failed fopen: ' d(k).name msg]),end % check opened it
    A(:,k)=cell2mat(textscan(fid, '%*d %f', ...
        'headerlines',1, 'collectoutput', 1));
    fid=fclose(fid);
end
;

A

Answer 1

[Mathieu NOE]

hello

maybe this is what you want

A is now a cell array of structure that you can further expand if you need , for the time being you get the info of what txt file it's related and the data

for example here we have one file so

>> A{1}

struct with fields:

name: 'A16.txt'

data: [8×6 double]

and the data :

>> A{1}.datas =

1.0000 1.0000 -0.0206 0.0953 -0.0501 0.0968

2.0000 2.0000 -0.0098 0.0006 0.0009 0.0513

3.0000 3.0000 0.0060 -0.0084 6.1690 4.1692

4.0000 4.0000 0.0028 -0.0008 5.1851 2.1852

5.0000 5.0000 0.0048 -0.0506 -0.0019 0.0313

6.0000 6.0000 0.0506 -0.0253 0.0201 0.0368

7.0000 7.0000 -0.0040 0.0052 -5.2804 5.2806

8.0000 8.0000 -0.0014 0.0031 -2.2747 2.2749

d = dir('*.txt');  % all .txt files in working directory
N = length(d)     % how many did we find?

for k=1:N
    filename = d(k).name;
    A{k}.name = filename;
    A{k}.data =readmatrix(filename);
end

A{1}

[Mathew Smith]

Thank you!

[Mathieu NOE]

as always, my pleasure !

[Stephen23]

Rather than creating an inefficient cell array of scalar structures, you can simply use the structure array which already exists in your code:

d = dir('*.txt'); % d is a structure array
for k = 1:numel(d)
    d(k).data =readmatrix(d(k).name);
end

This is more robust, uses less memory, creates fewer variables, no data duplication, and is more versatile:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/access-multiple-elements-of-a-nonscalar-struct-array.html

[Mathieu NOE]

yes indeed ! my brain wasn't working well that day

you're always right !