Programming

Overview

MATLAB provides many ways to load data from disk files or the clipboard into the workspace, a process called importing data, and to save workspace variables to a disk file, a process called exporting data. Your choice of which import or export mechanism to use depends mainly on the format of the data being transferred: text, binary, or a standard format such as HDF.

Note    If MATLAB does not support a high-level function that works with a data format, you can use the MATLAB low-level file I/O functions, if you know how the binary data is formatted in the file. See Using Low-Level File I/O Functions for more information.

This overview covers the following topics:

• Text Data
• Graphics Files
• Audio and Audio/Video Data
• Spreadsheets
• Scientific Formats
• The Internet
• Low-Level File I/O
• Large Data Sets
• Toolboxes for Importing Data

For more information and examples on importing and exporting data, see Technical Note 1602:

http://www.mathworks.com/support/tech-notes/1600/1602.html

Data Import and Export

Text Data

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