6. Matlab data handling

6.1 Importing ascii data

6.2 Exporting ascii data

6.1 Importing ascii data

Type help load to see how data is imported to Matlab. Briefly, the data file must contain n rows with m columns of data in each row. If the file is named foo.dat, then type load foo.dat. Matlab will call the data foo.

>> load foo.dat
>> foo

foo =

     1     2
     3     4
     5     6
     7     8
     9    10

6.2 Exporting ascii data

Type help save to see how data is exported from Matlab to disk. To save the foo data in a file called foo2.dat, follow the commands below.

>> help save

 SAVE Save workspace variables to disk. 
    SAVE fname saves all workspace variables to the binary "MAT-file"
    named fname.mat. The data may be retrieved with LOAD. Omitting the
    filename causes SAVE to use the default filename "matlab.mat".
 
    SAVE fname X  saves only X.
    SAVE fname X Y Z  saves X, Y, and Z. The wildcard '*' can be used to
    save only those variables that match a pattern.
 
    SAVE fname X Y Z  -ASCII  uses 8-digit ASCII form instead of binary.
    SAVE fname X Y Z  -ASCII -DOUBLE  uses 16-digit ASCII form.
    SAVE fname X Y Z  -ASCII -DOUBLE -TABS  delimits with tabs.
    SAVE fname X Y Z  -V4  saves a MAT-file that MATLAB 4 can LOAD.
    SAVE fname X Y Z  -APPEND  adds the variables to an existing MAT-file.
 
    Use the functional form of SAVE, such as SAVE('fname','var1','var2'),
    when the filename or variable names are stored in strings.
 
    See also LOAD, DIARY, FWRITE, FPRINTF.

>> save foo2.dat foo -ascii