Question

I have a text file FILE1.txt which has data logged in the format specified.

[39645212,-79970785]35892002323232[0.0][39645212,-79970785]35892002323232[12.2]

I would like to load this data into a matrix of size 2*4. I tried using dlmread which throws me errors. I am trying to get something using textread. How can I get something like:

39645212 -79970785 35892002323232 0.0
39645212 -79970785 35892002323232 12.2

Answer 1

Lets try using regexp

mat = []; % I am lazy and I do not per-allocate. this is BAD.
fh = fopen( 'FILE1.txt', 'r' ); % open for read
line = fgetl( fh );
while ischar( line )
    tks = regexp( line, '\[([^,]+),([^\]]+)\]([^\[]+)\[([^\]]+)', 'tokens' );
    for ii = 1:numel(tks)
        mat( end+1 ,: ) = str2double( tks{ii} );
    end
    line = fgetl( fh );
end
fclose( fh ); % do not forget to close the handle :-)

NOTES:

1. I assume no spaces and only numbers are between the ‘[‘, ‘]’ and ‘,’. So I can use str2double on the recovered strings.

2. I did not pre-allocated mat – this is bad practice and can significantly reduce performance. See this question for details on how to pre-allocate.