Read csv data from multiple websites in for loop

I'm trying to read csv data from a website using the urlread command. I can do this successfully if I just want to read in data from one station. However, I would like to be able to do this for multiple stations simultaneously. Because the only thing that changes in the url as I go from one station to the next is the 3-character id (shown below), I figure this could be done somehow in a for loop.

Here is what I have so far:

url_start = {'text_a'};

url_end = {'text_b'};

id={'abc';'bcd';'cde';'def';'efg';'fgh'};

url=cell(6,1);

for i = 1:6

      url{i} = strcat(url_start,id{i},url_end);

end

Does anyone know how I can now use the urlread on the newly created 'url' so I can read data from multiple webpages simultaneously? Thanks,

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Kurt - what do you mean by read data from multiple webpages simultaneously? Do you mean that as you create one URL (say url{1}) you want to read in the csv data for that URL, and then once url{2} is created you read in the csv data for that URL, etc.? If so, then try the following

 urlData = cell(6,1);

 url_start = {'text_a'};
 url_end = {'text_b'};
 id={'abc';'bcd';'cde';'def';'efg';'fgh'};
 url=cell(6,1);

 for k = 1:6
     url{k} = char(strcat(url_start,id{k},url_end));
     urlData{k} = urlread(url{k});
 end

On each iteration of k, the URL is built (with valid start, middle, and stop strings) and we save the character equivalent of it to the url cell array. We then immediately call urlread on that URL and save the results to the urlData array.

Try the above and see what happens!

Answer 2

[Kurt]

That's exactly what I needed! Thank you. I think I had something similar at one point, but was missing the char call.