How to read a specific value next to a text in a text file?

Hi everyone,

I am using MATLAB to read a specific file and I need to extract information. The format is as follows

Value (any number) - / text here (A)

Value (any number) - / text here (B)

I would like to know how to extract all the value for the "- / text here (B)". Thanks for your help in advance.

[Stephen23]

@Dorna: please upload a sample data file by clicking the paperclip button.

[Dorna]

@Stephen23 here it is:

[Dorna]

and by the way, how can I store it based on Zone names (Zone A and Zone B) or write it in a way that a specific Zone coordinates are replaced with specific coordiantes.

[Stephen23]

@Dorna: Do you know the name of the application that generated that file, or name of the file format? Someone may have already written a file parser for that file format.

Answer 1

[Oguz Kaan Hancioglu]

I understand your data format is text-based as you want to read or write both numbers and strings. If all elements of the data are separated using special delimiters, you can use the readtable command. Than you can find your txt B using string commands and reach the value.

clc; clear;
fileName = 'New Text Document.txt'

fileName = 'New Text Document.txt'

T = readtable(fileName,'Format','auto');
disp(T);

     Var1      Var2  
    ______    _______

    3.1415    {'pi' }
    6.2832    {'2pi'}

bIndex = find(strcmp(string(T.Var2),'2pi')==1);
disp(double(T.Var1(bIndex)))

    6.2832

readtable supports many file formats including .xls, .xml, .docx, .html.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/readtable.html

Answer 2

[Stephen23]

raw = strtrim(readlines('Txt.txt'));
idx = strcmp(raw,'')|strcmpi(raw,'Zone,');
raw(idx) = [];
% split the values and keys:
spl = regexp(raw,'[,;]\s*!-\s*','split','once');
spl = vertcat(spl{:});
% convert to table:
idy = startsWith(spl(:,1),'Zone');
idz = 1+cumsum(idy);
zab = ["";spl(idy,1)];
spl(:,3) = zab(idz);
tbl = array2table(spl(~idy&idz>1,:), 'VariableNames',{'Value','Key','Name'})

tbl = 24×3 table
    Value                    Key                      Name  
    _____    ___________________________________    ________

    "0"      "Direction of Relative North {deg}"    "Zone A"
    "0"      "X Origin {m}"                         "Zone A"
    "0"      "Y Origin {m}"                         "Zone A"
    "0"      "Z Origin {m}"                         "Zone A"
    ""       "Type"                                 "Zone A"
    ""       "Multiplier"                           "Zone A"
    ""       "Ceiling Height {m}"                   "Zone A"
    ""       "Volume {m3}"                          "Zone A"
    ""       "Floor Area {m2}"                      "Zone A"
    ""       "Zone Inside Convection Algorithm"     "Zone A"
    ""       "Zone Outside Convection Algorithm"    "Zone A"
    "Yes"    "Part of Total Floor Area"             "Zone A"
    "0"      "Direction of Relative North {deg}"    "Zone B"
    "0"      "X Origin {m}"                         "Zone B"
    "0"      "Y Origin {m}"                         "Zone B"
    "0"      "Z Origin {m}"                         "Zone B"

% unstack to a more useful arrangement:
tbl = unstack(tbl,'Value','Key', 'VariableNamingRule','preserve');
tbl = convertvars(tbl,@(s)all(~isnan(double(s))),'double')

tbl = 2×13 table
      Name      Ceiling Height {m}    Direction of Relative North {deg}    Floor Area {m2}    Multiplier    Part of Total Floor Area    Type    Volume {m3}    X Origin {m}    Y Origin {m}    Z Origin {m}    Zone Inside Convection Algorithm    Zone Outside Convection Algorithm
    ________    __________________    _________________________________    _______________    __________    ________________________    ____    ___________    ____________    ____________    ____________    ________________________________    _________________________________

    "Zone A"            ""                            0                          ""               ""                 "Yes"               ""         ""              0               0               0                         ""                                  ""                
    "Zone B"            ""                            0                          ""               ""                 "Yes"               ""         ""              0               0               0                         ""                                  ""