how to save a .mat file full of characters into a .txt file?

Hello everyone:

Thank you in advance for giving me all the suggestions.

I am trying to export a .mat file full of characters into a .txt file. Part of the .mat file looks like the following:

zentimeter zepler zero zeros zeroth zeta ziel zig zigxag zimmermann zinc zirconate zisler zncl zns zobel zobels zodiacal zolatarev zonal zone zones zurich

After loading it to the workspace, I tried save command but it did not work and later I tried the command: [row]=find (dictionary). Instead of displaying the characters, a lot of numbers were displayed. May I know how to solve this problem please?

Thank you very much.

Best regards,

Wen

Answer 1

[Matt Fig]

You don't say what form dictionary takes. Is it a cell array, a character array, or what?

In general, use the FWRITE function to save the data:

fid = fopen('mydata.txt','wt')
fwrite(fid,dictionary)  % This line depends on your data, see above.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

If the data to be written is all one long string separated by spaces, and you want it to be output in that form, then:

fid = fopen(OutputFileName, 'wt');
fwrite(fid, TheString, '*char');
fclose(fid);

If you do this, then the strings will be UTF encoded, probably to UTF-8. UTF-8 represents the basic ASCII characters as themselves but uses multiple bytes to write out non-ASCII characters.

If the data is stored in a cell array of strings and you want it written out one entry per line, then

fid = fopen(OutputFileName, 'wt');
for K = 1 : numels(TheCellArray)
  fprintf(fid, '%s\n', TheCellArray{K});
end
fclose(fid);

This too will probably use UTF-8 encoding.

[Jan]

Instead of the loop over K you can write:

fprintf(fid, '%s\n', TheCellArray{:});

To write UTF8 encoded file, you need:

fid = fopen(File, 'w', 'n', 'UTF-8');

[Walter Roberson]

Good point about the looping.

Using 'UTF-8' specifically forces UTF-8 coding; the default for fopen() is "system dependent". UTF-8 is the default on the server I use... and I did say "probably" ;-)