How to remove/skip text at beginning of a file while reading it using textscan?

I obtain a file (data.dat) from the tests looking something like:

" # Fix print output for fix output_fix
2.08961637595025 0 0 -0.0999999999999419 4.16318208254011e-08 8.4252204541061e-08 0.0816630066803504 -0.0816630066803506 -3.97606504059701e-10 -8.04654348855725e-10 -2.50587947838166 200 0 -2.5 300 0 -2.5 400 0 -2.5
4.1792327519005 0 0 -0.0999999999999419 -1.26671703863963e-05 -2.02452275457547e-05 0.50566955186541 ...."

Each value after the text represents a data which I group into 20 cells of matrix by using textscan using the code:

fid=fopen(data.dat);

S=textscan(fid,'%f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f %f');

How can I avoid the "# Fix print output for fix output_fix"at the beginning while using textscan?

I don't want to manually delete the text at each file. Please help. Thanks

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

If the text line is a separate line at the beginning of the file (as it appears to be), use the HeaderLines (link) name-value pair to specify the number of header lines to skip.

[Tanmaya Mishra]

Hi, Actually the text is in the same line as the data values (they start immediately after "fix"). Can i still use headerlines name-value pair?

[Star Strider]

The 'Headerlines' option will not work unless it is an actual header line.

There are other options, such as Remove Literal Text (link), Specify Text to be Treated as Empty or Comments (link) (using the 'CommentStyle' (link) name-value pair), Read or Skip Quoted Text and Numeric Fields (link), and possibly others.

You will have to experiment to get the result you want.

[Tanmaya Mishra]

Thanks a lot.

 Specify Text to be Treated as Empty or Comments (link) (using the 'CommentStyle' (link) name-value pair) works.

[Star Strider]

As always, my pleasure.