How to merge multiple comma-delimited .dat file matrices into one matrix using MATLAB?

Before I start, I want to thank you for taking the time to help me with this issue.

I have a folder filled with hundreds dat time series files. Equally, each file has hundreds of rows of time series data. As an example, here are the four header rows and five data rows for two files:

"TOA5","69927","CR1000","69927","CR1000.Std.31.03","CPU:QikIsland_Met_2017_v1.6.CR1","57632","CBAY_MET_1MIN"
"TIMESTAMP","RECORD","BattV_Avg","AvgBattV","PTemp_C_Avg","Kdn_Avg","Kup_Avg","Ldn_Avg","Lup_Avg","CNR4TC_Avg","CNR4TK_Avg","LdnCo_Avg","LupCo_Avg","WS_ms_Avg","WS_ms_Max","WS_ms_Min","WS_ms_Std","WS_ms_S_WVT","WindDir_D1_WVT","WindDir_SD1_WVT","AirTC_A_Avg","RH_A_Avg","AirTC_B_Avg","RH_B_Avg","BP_Avg","xco2_cp_Avg","Pumps_ON","Licors_ON","EC150_ON","HeatVent_ON"
"TS","RN","Volts","","Deg C","W/m^2","W/m^2","W/m^2","W/m^2","Deg C","K","W/m^2","W/m^2","meters/second","meters/second","meters/second","meters/second","meters/second","Deg","Deg","Deg C","%","Deg C","","kPa","","","","",""
"","","Avg","Smp","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Max","Min","Std","WVc","WVc","WVc","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Smp","Smp","Smp","Smp"
"2017-05-04 14:54:00",2713,13.44,13.39,-10.94,652.7,439.7,-93.8,1.293,-10.91,262.2,174.3,269.4,2.404,2.94,2.019,0.239,2.404,3.589,2.461,-50,0,-15.06,72.6,101.8,407.8,1,1,1,0
"2017-05-04 14:55:00",2714,13.45,13.38,-10.97,650.8,440,-93.7,0.37,-10.9,262.3,174.5,268.6,2.51,2.92,2.274,0.184,2.51,0.197,5.514,-50,0,-15.03,72.69,101.8,407.8,1,1,1,0
"2017-05-04 14:56:00",2715,13.46,13.4,-10.84,648.9,439.8,-94.3,1.346,-10.76,262.4,174.4,270.1,2.073,2.332,1.862,0.133,2.073,353.7,3.669,-50,0,-15,72.68,101.8,407.6,1,1,1,0
"2017-05-04 14:57:00",2716,13.46,13.41,-10.71,648,441.7,-94.9,1.531,-10.67,262.5,174.3,270.7,2.002,2.685,1.686,0.289,2.002,350.9,3.847,-50,0,-14.94,72.67,101.8,407.4,1,1,1,0
"2017-05-04 14:58:00",2717,13.46,13.42,-10.59,647.2,440.4,-94.9,0.396,-10.66,262.5,174.3,269.6,2.497,2.744,2.195,0.15,2.497,352.6,1.437,-50,0,-14.93,72.61,101.8,407.7,1,1,1,0

"TOA5","69927","CR1000","69927","CR1000.Std.31.03","CPU:QikIsland_Met_2017_v1.6.CR1","57632","CBAY_MET_1MIN"
"TIMESTAMP","RECORD","BattV_Avg","AvgBattV","PTemp_C_Avg","Kdn_Avg","Kup_Avg","Ldn_Avg","Lup_Avg","CNR4TC_Avg","CNR4TK_Avg","LdnCo_Avg","LupCo_Avg","WS_ms_Avg","WS_ms_Max","WS_ms_Min","WS_ms_Std","WS_ms_S_WVT","WindDir_D1_WVT","WindDir_SD1_WVT","AirTC_A_Avg","RH_A_Avg","AirTC_B_Avg","RH_B_Avg","BP_Avg","xco2_cp_Avg","Pumps_ON","Licors_ON","EC150_ON","HeatVent_ON"
"TS","RN","Volts","","Deg C","W/m^2","W/m^2","W/m^2","W/m^2","Deg C","K","W/m^2","W/m^2","meters/second","meters/second","meters/second","meters/second","meters/second","Deg","Deg","Deg C","%","Deg C","","kPa","","","","",""
"","","Avg","Smp","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Max","Min","Std","WVc","WVc","WVc","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Avg","Smp","Smp","Smp","Smp"
"2017-05-05 00:01:00",3260,12.06,12.06,-20.6,-3.329,-0.676,-62.68,-4.122,-20.95,252.2,166.7,225.2,2.375,2.489,2.176,0.103,2.375,171.6,14.43,-50,0,-20.8,83.2,102.1,410.7,1,1,1,0
"2017-05-05 00:02:00",3261,12.06,12.06,-20.63,-3.854,-1.329,-62.4,-4.017,-21.05,252.1,166.6,225,2.602,2.764,2.352,0.132,2.602,175.2,8.6,-50,0,-21.36,82.7,102.1,410.9,1,1,1,0
"2017-05-05 00:03:00",3262,12.04,12.06,-20.66,-3.529,-0.878,-61.38,-3.567,-21.06,252.1,167.6,225.4,2.479,2.666,2.274,0.093,2.479,151.4,4.677,-50,0,-21.23,83.1,102.1,410.7,1,1,1,0
"2017-05-05 00:04:00",3263,12.06,12.06,-20.67,-3.179,-0.293,-60.76,-3.435,-21.08,252.1,168.1,225.5,2.773,3.018,2.254,0.2,2.773,142.2,1.946,-50,0,-20.98,83.4,102.1,410.6,1,1,1,0
"2017-05-05 00:05:00",3264,12.05,12.06,-20.7,-2.928,0.158,-60.67,-3.171,-21.11,252,168.1,225.6,3.01,3.195,2.94,0.068,3.01,142.2,2.803,-50,0,-20.83,83.5,102.1,410.5,1,1,1,0

Now, I'm looking for a MATLAB solution to:

1. Read all the files in my folder
2. Merge all files into one comma-delimited matrix while deleting the header rows for subsequent files
3. Export the file to Excel

Thank you again. It means a lot.

matlabtime-series

Answer 1

[Cris LaPierre]

If all your files have the same format and number of colums, I would look into using a file data store. See the Importing Multiple Data Files video from our Practical Data Science specialization on Coursera for a detailed example.

If you don't already have an import function for your files, you can create one interactively using the Import Tool. You may find another video from that specialization helfpul: How to Use the Import Tool.