Reading mat or ascii files

Hello. I have a strange problem. I am reading two types of files '-ascii' and '-mat' but the load function must be set to one of them but I don't know what tpye of file is currently reading. My question is how to write a code so it will be work for both types of files.

Answer 1

[Jan]

if exist(File, 'file') == 0
  error('File does not exist: %s', File);
end
try
   Data = load(File, '-MAT');
catch
   Data = load(File, '-ASCII');
end

Answer 2

[dpb]

Simplest would be if your application that created the files were consistent in naming them such that the .mat extension were to be used only for .mat files and did invariably do so--then simply load filename w/o worrying about the type switch would automagically do "the right stuff".

If you can't do the obvious and expedient, you can build a function that looks at the file with whos -- sotoo

function ismat = ismatfile(fn)
  % return logical T if fn is mat-file, F otherwise

    try
      ismat=~isempty(whos('-file',fn));
    catch
      ismat=false;
    end
  end

Above assumes the file does exist; may want to wrap in that test as well depending on your usage.

But, I still think the first suggestion is the better altho this can account for users who don't play by the rules.

[Jan]

+1: Yes, of course. The best solution to manage the confused file formats is to avoid the confusion by providing different file extensions.