Error using scatter3. Incorrect number of inputs for property-value pairs.

Hey guys. I'm writing a code which has to plot 3d values on a 2d grid. I've succeeded in doing this for another (different) data set. However for this data set i keep getting the same error in using scatter3. I've looked up the error but it hasn't helped me (I could only find one other person with a similar error).

The code I'm using is as follows:

 x=[];y=[];ssc=[];   
 for j=1:length(files)
        fid = fopen([datdir files(j).name],'rt');
       for p=1:10
           tmp=fgetl(fid);
       end
       for i=1:200
           for j=1:2
               tmp=fgetl(fid);
           end
           if ~ischar(tmp)
               break
           end
      x=tmp(14:22);
      y=tmp(24:33);
           for j=1:4
               tmp=fgetl(fid);
           end
       C=textscan(fid,'%f %f');
       ssc=[ssc;mean(C{2})];
       ssc(ssc>=500)=0.001;
       S=repmat([4],length(ssc),1);
       C=repmat([1-ssc/100,1-ssc/100,1-ssc/100],1,1);
       scatter3(x,y,ssc,S,C)
       end
           fclose(fid);
    end

The error derives at the scatter3 line and is: Error using scatter3 (line 45) Incorrect number of inputs for property-value pairs.

The x, y and ssc components in the scatter3 function all have the same amount of values (1 in this case), so that cant be the problem.

A sample of the data file being processed:

[if true]
*------------------------------------------
* Type     : ViSea DPS Type III ASCII file.
* Source   : ViSea DPS © Aqua Vision BV
* Name     : ADCP data 'MV2_120331_006r.asc'
* Position : moving RDV
* Date     : 20120331 7:54 - 20120331 7:58 LOCAL
*
* column 1 : depth below water surface (m)
* column 2 : sediment concentration (mg/l)
*------------------------------------------
*
* Position : 58251.195 443538.687 x/y RDV
* Date     : 20120331 075412 LOCAL
*
B0001
  5  3
 0.75     14.4
 1.00     14.4
 1.25     12.2
 1.50      6.7
 1.75      3.7
*
* Position : 58252.436 443539.652 x/y RDV

It would be awesome if someone would be able to tell me how to manipulate my code in order to get around this error. Thanks in advance!

[Yuri Engelshoven]

Bump

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

In your code, I see

x=tmp(14:22);
y=tmp(24:33);

where

tmp = fgetl(fid);

Therefore your x and y are char arrays (you can check with whos x, y). Possibly you missed a str2num in your assignment to x and y. That would be consistent with scatter3 thinking you're trying to pass property values pairs (i.e. strings + value).

Personally, I'd parse your file with:

fid = fopen(fullfile(datdir, files(j).name),'rt'); %use path concatenation function
tline = fgetl(fid); %tmp is a very meaningless variable name
while ischar(tline) && ~strncmp(tline, '* Position : ', numel('* Position : '))
   tline = fgetl(fid);
end
if ~ischar(tline)
   error('end of file reached prematurely')
end
position = str2double(regexp(tline, '(?<=\s+)\d+\.\d+', 'match')); %no hardcoding of the number position!
x = position(1); y = position(2);
for skiplines = 1:4
  if ~ischar(fgetl(fid))
     error('end of file reached prematurely')
  end
end
data = textscan(fid,'%f %f');