textscan conversion specifier for 1 string N float - possible without specifying '%f' N times?

I want to read a texfile into a cellarray.

Each line contains one string at the beginning, followed by N floats; the N is quite large, around 50 numbers.

In the textscan docs I found a syntax like this:

fileID = fopen(filename);

C = textscan(fileID,'%s %f' %f' %f' %f' %f' %f' %f' %f' %f');

fclose(fileID);

is it possible to specify conversion without writing N times '%f'?

Thank you very much in advance,

Elke

Answer 1

[dpb]

Unfortunately, the C syntax doesn't allow for a repeat count as does the Fortran FORMAT -- the MATLAB idiom to deal with it is still somewhat verbose but does eliminate having to explcitly code the repeated character. But the actual format string does indeed, have to have it repeated literally, unfortunately.

fmt=['%s' repmat('%f',1,N)];
C=textscan(fid,fmt);