How to properly import a text file -- importdata or dlmread?

I'm a total amateur in MATLab, and only have limited experience with programming at all.

Here's what I've got: A bunch of files that have 19 rows of header text, no real column headers, and after that, three columns of data (X, Y1, and Y2). Eventually, I would like to put all files into a single matrix so I can plot and analyze them together. To start with though, I would just like to be able to get them into MATLab, minus the text, in the most logical fashion so that as I learn, I can start building a cohesive store of related data from these separate files.

I tried using import wizard, and I was able to create a variable that had all the right values in all the right places (basically looked like my original file, minus the header rows, in a sort of spreadsheet-looking variable). However, it kept generating a separate text variable (which contained the 19 header rows of text) that I don't need, and it wasn't giving me the option of generating 'vectors using column names', which I don't understand. Is import wizard (i.e. 'importdata') the way to go, or should I be using dlmread or some other function?

Any suggestions/help here would be much appreciated!

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

How about this:

% skips the first 19 lines of the data, and then reads the remaining data, 
% treating commas as a delimiter.
myMatrix = textscan(fileID,'%f','HeaderLines', 19,'Delimiter',',')

[Crystal]

I tried running that (but changed delimiter to '\t', as my data are tab delimited), and it returned a 1x1 cell. If I could just suppress the return of the text portion when I use "importdata", I wouldn't mind going that route. It just seems tedious and unnecessary to deal with it.

Any other suggestions?