Which code will be faster?

Background: I have more than 20 .mat files with about 100 different arrays. Each .mat file is about 100-200 mb. I am trying to write code to process them all. Which of the following options do you recommend to process the code faster?

a. load each .mat file into workspace and then process the data, and also I need to clear the variables after I am done with the file.

b. access the array itself directly in the .mat file and then process it

Thanks,

Answer 1

[Adam]

Loading the into memory should be faster if they fit in memory. It is easy to test the speed of both of them for yourself though and usually better than asking.