I would like to import a matrix that has filenames in the first row with numbers and a letter. How can I do this wihout it importing as NaN? It's not a date format.

Hello,

I am trying to import a data matrix that has the first row as the Sample ID, which has numbers and a letter: e.g., 20W03091907521748421. When I import it, this gets converted to NaN. Is there some way I can import it into the matrix as the first row and keep its name please? The only other option I could find was date format.

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

You’re not saying how you’re importing it. If you’re using textscan, I would import it as a string. If you need to parse the numbers and letters, you can do that later with a regexp call:

str = '20W03091907521748421';
parsed = regexp(str, '\d+|([A-Z]?)', 'match')

parsed = 
    '20'    'W'    '03091907521748421'

[Michel Nieuwoudt]

Thanks for the reply! I'm just importing using the Import tab, and selected a matrix of about 2000 columns and 1067 rows, and the first row has one of these names for each column. I can also use the load command. Is there maybe some way I can import or load the matrix, so that the first row is in a string format, for all 2000 columns?

[Star Strider]

My pleasure.

I would use textscan. I generally do not use the import tab because textscan gives me more control over the way my file is imported.

EDIT — (16 Sep 2016 at 01:30 UTC)

I can help you if you post your file or at least several rows of it. Writing textscan code is relatively straightforward, but I can’t do it without your file. Use the ‘paperclip’ icon to upload it to your original Question or to a Comment here.