Importing csv file with scientific notation

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I am having a lot of trouble importing my csv files, I have tried: importdata, dlmread and textscan. Just cant seem to get it working.
I have 100+ files, so changing them manually is tricky
when using importdata the result end up as a cell aray: {' - 6 . 5 9 9 4 8 E - 0 0 1 , - 4 . 8 6 2 2 6 E + 0 0 4 , - 6 . 5 9 9 4 8 E - 0 0 1 , 3 . 8 2 3 7 5 E + 0 0....'}
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Guillaume
Guillaume on 23 Jul 2019
The main problem with your file is that it is encoded in UTF-16LE (16-bit unicode little endian), which matlab doesn't officially support for reading and writing.
Is there any chance that you can change the settings of whichever software is writing these files so that it is written with a different encoding (UTF8 would be a lot better)?

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Accepted Answer

Guillaume
Guillaume on 23 Jul 2019
Edited: Guillaume on 23 Jul 2019
Unfortunately, none of the high-level functions work with UTF16, so you have to go low-level. Even then, you'll get a warning that the encoding is not supported. As of R2019a, I'm not aware of instances where it's not decoded properly, but: here be dragons. If you can change the setting of your exporting tool.
fid = fopen('test.csv', 'rt', 'n', 'UTF16LE'); %Issues a warning that UTF16 is not supported
data = textscan(fid, repmat('%f', 1, 12), 'Delimiter', ',', 'HeaderLines', 6); %Same warning again
data = [data{:}]
fclose(fid);
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Adolf Krige
Adolf Krige on 23 Jul 2019
Thanks a lot, I was hoping that I was just doing something stupid.
I checked and the software has no options that I can see, it also unfortunately does not help with all the data that I already have.
It does work, however, despite the complaints.

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