large text file reading

Hello,

   I am currently working on a program that will read a large text file and then export it into an excel file in a different organization. My file i am trying to read contains information in this form... 

    Time     Pz     Fz        Fy     My     Ra       Fx      

   0.000  12.350  1062.0    -9.9    12.0 245.391     0.8
   0.040  12.348  1062.3    -9.2    10.3 245.391     0.8
   0.080  12.347  1062.7    -9.6     5.2 245.391     1.1
   0.120  12.347  1062.3    -9.6     5.2 245.391     0.7
   0.160  12.347  1061.6    -9.9    13.8 245.391     0.2
   0.200  12.349  1061.6    -9.6    -5.2 245.391    -0.3
   0.240  12.350  1061.6    -9.9    -1.7 245.391    -0.1
   0.280  12.350  1062.0    -9.9    10.3 245.391     0.4
   0.320  12.348  1062.3    -9.2    18.9 245.391     0.6
   0.360  12.347  1062.7    -9.4    15.5 245.391     0.8

and then it repeats 4 times going down the page. what is the best way for me to make my program check for a new title line and then start reading again so that i can end up with 4 matrices full if this data.

[Mahdi]

When you say it repeats 4 times. Do you mean that the headings Time, Pz, Fz, etc... repeat after that? Or is it just the numbers?

[Tyler]

the pattern is...

Heading

data

heading

data

heading

data

heading

data

The goal would be to end up with for matrices which contain the 4 data sets so that i can arrange them in the excel file as need be. I am not sure how i should go about directing my program to read one data set and then stop at the next header and start over. Also the amount of data in each set is not consistent, this is my biggest problem.

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Just use fopen(), then fgetl(). Use strfind() to look for 'Time'. If it's there, read another line (the blank line), and increment the index of the block of data (it will be either 1, 2, 3, or 4), and start reading lines again (they'll be the numbers now). Then use sscanf() to extract the numbers from the string into your data variable.

fid = fopen('test.txt');
textLine = fgetl(fid);
dataIndex = 0;
while ischar(textLine)
  fprintf('Read in %s\n', textLine);
  % Check for 'Time'
  if strfind(lower(textLine), 'time') >= 1
    dataIndex = dataIndex + 1
    % Read the blank line.
    textLine = fgetl(fid);
  else
    % It's a line of numbers.
    oneRowOfNumbers = sscanf(textLine, '%f');
    % Turn into row vector;
    oneRowOfNumbers = oneRowOfNumbers';
    % Now append this row of numbers to the appropriate variable.
  end
  % Read the next line.
  textLine = fgetl(fid);
end
% Close the file.
fclose(fid);

Answer 2

[Ahmed A. Selman]

Try this and note to specify your filename input (FIN) and filename output (FOUT) properly, i.e., FOUT must be with extension (xls) or (xlsx), e.g., 1.xls

Filenm =input('Input your FIN File name : ','s'); % here input the filename FIN
file1=fopen (Filenm,'r');
FOUT=input('Input your FOUT File name : ','s'); % here input the filename FOUT
[Binp, dn1]=fscanf(file1,'%s', [7 1]); % here is the header only as a matrix
[Ainp,dn]=fscanf(file1,'%g', [7 inf]); % here is the rest (numeric) values. You have 7 cols so pay attention to change it otherwise.
[doesItWork,TheWarning]=xlswrite(FOUT,Ainp');

if doesItWork==1;
    disp ('Passed-- FIN was read and FOUT was written.')
else
    TheWarning
end 
fclose(file1);