How do I pull data from excel in an automated method?

I need to develop an automated method to import each individual participant data set. One spreadsheet has a list of the participant's name, then each participant has their own spreadsheet with their corresponded data listed. Also, how can I find the mean of each individual's score on trial 1?

[Jan]

Please explain the details: How is the "list of names" stored in the file? How can the spreadshets be related to the names? How are the data stored in the sheets? What is a score? What is "trial 1"? Remember that the readers do not have the faintest idea about what you are doing.

[Richard Wilson]

Good point, I should have thought of that. So I have an excel file named "Lab3" that contains the names of people that participated in my experiment (ex: mary, paul, simon, etc). Then each person has their own separate excel file with a list of 3 trials, next to eat trial is a score that I collected from the experiment. Does this help clarify?

[Jan]

Yes, it helps. Do you have a specific question now?

[Richard Wilson]

So I am guessing the teacher wants me to create a loop that goes through each individual spreadsheet and calculates the average for the values of trial 1 and save that result as variable "trial1_scores'. I am new to MATLAB and in desperate need of help!

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_process_a_sequence_of_files.3F

http://matlab.wikia.com/wiki/FAQ#How_can_I_create_variables_A1.2C_A2.2C....2CA10_in_a_loop.3F