read_float.m

Read numbers with user definable digit group and decimal separators from a text file.

Description

This function reads in numbers from a text file and stores them to a cell array. It solves the problem that often the numbers in the text file are written by programs (e.g. MS Excel) using the Windows regional settings for the format of a number, e.g. 100,000.123 (english) or 100.000,123 (german). Matlab does not use windows locale settings. read_float uses either the Windows locale settings or user specified characters for the digit group and decimal separators. The numbers are detected using a regular expression which matches any floating point number (even complex numbers, see documentation of str2double.m)
The regular expression is described in a comment in the m-file and could be useful and easily adapted for similar purposes.
Using this function, there is no need to pre-process the text file, e.g. by substituting all commas by dots in a file using a comma as decimal separator.

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.0.4 (R14SP2)
• Other requirements: Windows OS required for using Windows regional settings, on other OS the separator characters can be provided by the user