How can I import my text files into matlab?

I have 50 .txt files that I need to define as independent variables in matlab but I keep getting an error with the code I am trying to use saying file not found. These files have 5 columns and about 2000 rows. I also only want to start reading at the second row. Is there a way to do this using a loop of some sort??

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_process_a_sequence_of_files.3F

If you are reading the files out of a directory other than the current directory, it is important that you remember to fullfile() to get the complete name. For example,

   projectdir = '/Users/Kristen/MATLAB/fish_samples';
   dinfo = dir(fullfile(projectdir, '*.txt'));
   for K = 1 : length(dinfo)
      thisfile = fullfile( projectdir, dinfo(K).name);
      ...
   end

[Kristen Brusich]

Okay so I was able to import all of my data files, each called manifold_i where i runs from 0 to 49. Now I want to run a for loop to take the first column out of every manifold matrix and create a time column. So I know how to do one would be

t0=manifold_0(:,1)

but how would i write something like

for i = 0:49

t{i}=manifold_i(:,1)

end

I keep getting the error than manifold i doesnt exist but I want it to pull manifold_0 then 1 and so on

[Kirby Fears]

Hi Kristen,

If you want the vectors collected in a cell in the first place (this will make your life easier), you should read them into a single cell from the start.

A simple modification to Walter's answer above will do this for you.

   projectdir = '/Users/Kristen/MATLAB/fish_samples';
   dinfo = dir(fullfile(projectdir, '*.txt'));
   manifolds=cell(length(dinfo),1); % initialize cell
   for K = 1 : length(dinfo)
      thisfile = fullfile( projectdir, dinfo(K).name);
      manifold{k} = read(thisfile);
      ...
   end

Where the "read" function is whatever function you're using to read your files.

[Walter Roberson]

You would use that only if you wanted to record the names of the files. To record the data you need to load it from the file named by thisfile

manifold{K} = load(thisfile);