Can matlab read binary real*8 data written by fortran?

I have a binary data vector written in fortran, the variable type is real*8, is it possible to read this file with Matlab, and if so, can you tell me how I can read it?

Answer 1

[Bruno Luong]

Normally it's just a binary file of doubles

fid = fopen(BinFilename,'rb');
data = fread(fid, 'double');
fclose(fid);

you'll gete data as double vector array.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

real*8 is the same as double precision. However:

• you have to be careful about byte order. It might be stored in "big endian" (most significant byte first) but the default for MATLAB is little-endian
• the most common way of writing Fortran files is as "records" in which each record is preceeded and followed by a four-byte record length. I seem to recall that this corresponds to Fortran Form=Direct. I seem to recall that for plain binary streams that Fortran Form=Raw but that needs to be checked as it has been years since I last checked.

MATLAB does not have a direct call to read the length-delimited records; they can be handled with fread part by part.