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Importing Delimited ASCII Data Files

If your data file uses a character other than a space as a delimiter, you have a choice of several import functions you can use. (See Table 6-2 for a complete list.) The simplest to use is the dlmread function.

For example, consider a file named ph.dat whose contents are separated by semicolons:

To read the entire contents of this file into an array named A, enter

You specify the delimiter used in the data file as the second argument to dlmread. Note that, even though the last items in each row are not followed by a delimiter, dlmread can still process the file correctly. dlmread ignores space characters between data elements. So, the preceding dlmread command works even if the contents of ph.dat are


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