Scan a text file for some data

Hello

I need to scan a complected text file to find the values like date and time, and some peaks in certain moments. Can you please tell me how to do that? The text files are like this (GC results)

As an example the data I want is SIG10001.D in the first line. the date in line 5: 11/22/2012 13:54:49 PM

and some other values in next lines, I believe I will handle them after I learn these two ones.(They may not shown correctly in this text)

Best regards

Saeed

   Data File C:\HPCHEM\1\DATA\TOMEPROD\SIG10001.D Sample Name: Distillate
  AGILENT 6850 11/22/2012 14:08:50 PM SAEED

=====================================================================
Injection Date  : 11/22/2012 13:54:49 PM         Seq. Line :   1
Sample Name     : Distillate                      Location :   -
Acq. Operator   : SAEED                                Inj :   1
                                                Inj Volume : No inj
Sequence File   : D:\HPCHEM\1\SEQUENCE\TOME.S
Method          : C:\HPCHEM\1\METHODS\TAEEVAL.M
Last changed    : 11/16/2012 10:06:50 PM by SAEED
=====================================================================
                         Area Percent Report                         
=====================================================================

Sorted By             :      Signal
Multiplier            :      1.0000
Dilution              :      1.0000
Use Multiplier & Dilution Factor with ISTDs

Signal 1: FID1 A, 

Peak RetTime Type  Width     Area      Height     Area  
  #   [min]        [min]   [pA*s]      [pA]         %
----|-------|----|-------|----------|----------|--------|
   1   4.994 PV    0.0301  668.93677  352.99020  0.23606
   2   5.078 VB S  0.0935 5.29838e4  9160.61914 18.69718
   3   5.278 BB X  0.0419  246.37656   87.31703  0.08694
   4   5.483 BB X  0.0401   55.78785   21.58883  0.01969
   5   5.676 BP    0.0414  104.80035   38.91515  0.03698
   6   5.997 BV    0.0535  198.18703   50.80287  0.06994
   7   6.064 VB    0.0451  220.76306   71.43374  0.07790
   8   6.482 BV    0.0753   54.96251    9.97957  0.01940
   9   6.614 VB    0.0479  281.33212   88.89796  0.09928
  10   6.918 PP    0.0517   28.16792    7.52760  0.00994
  11   7.113 VB    0.0406   88.62502   32.68439  0.03127
  12   7.329 BP    0.0404  143.04147   54.97429  0.05048
  13   7.504 BB    0.0421   54.26121   19.71564  0.01915
  14   7.643 BP    0.0419   10.87538    3.98018  0.00384
  15   7.924 BV    0.0548   33.04194    9.68445  0.01166
  16   8.030 VV    0.0450   30.85688   10.57947  0.01089
  17   8.390 BP    0.0460   88.78347   29.57019  0.03133
  18   8.957 BP    0.0767   37.62064    7.60910  0.01328
  19   9.575 PV S  0.0749 1.90900e5  3.38004e4  67.36582
  20   9.696 BV X  0.0281   74.65408   41.37165  0.02634
  21   9.842 VB S  0.0425 3.11354e4  1.08496e4  10.98719
  22  10.007 BV X  0.0301  120.74277   63.69372  0.04261
  23  10.063 VB X  0.0328  370.84274  174.30756  0.13086
  24  10.242 BB X  0.0329  166.80324   78.30387  0.05886
  25  10.524 BB    0.0337  121.31771   57.35064  0.04281
  26  10.681 BP    0.0338  364.72791  171.52573  0.12871
  27  11.018 BV    0.0333   72.04418   34.54771  0.02542
  28  11.757 BP    0.0313   90.24658   45.13648  0.03185
  29  12.077 BB    0.0307   12.24738    6.28417  0.00432
  30  12.429 PV    0.0288   44.58385   23.83980  0.01573
  31  12.489 VP    0.0313  138.53285   69.32865  0.04889
  32  12.780 BB    0.0350  243.65657  101.44206  0.08598
  33  12.908 BP    0.0291   25.89804   13.64151  0.00914
  34  13.250 BB    0.0317 4093.44043 2016.99573  1.44451
  35  13.431 BP    0.0345   58.33971   25.72445  0.02059
  36  13.943 PBA   0.0422   14.61536    5.13776  0.00516
Totals :                  2.83379e5  5.76375e4 

=====================================================================
                         Summed Peaks Report                         
=====================================================================

Signal 1: FID1 A, 
=====================================================================
                      Final Summed Peaks Report                      
=====================================================================

Signal 1: FID1 A, 
                          *** End of Report ***

Answer 1

[dpb]

Basically,

doc textscan

You can parse the file given what you know that is fixed format and what fields you wish to retrieve...

To get the initial file name...

fid=fopen('thefile','rt'); fn=textscan(fid,' Data File %s %*[^\n]');

You can then do a new read w/ textscan on the same fid and use the appropriate number of 'headerline', 'N' to skip to the desired record and read it...

It didn't appear that the date you were interested in was actually on line 5; perhaps owing to line wrap problems but you can work those details out...

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