How to use a variable as an 'importdata' string

        The following line works fine.
  unformatteddata = importdata('neutral.prf', DELIMITER, HEADERLINES);

When I make a variable with 'neutral.prf' as the string, importdata (the last line) fails to find the file.

prf_name= 'neutral';
prf_ext = '.prf';
prf_string(1,1) = strcat(prf_name, prf_ext);
  unformatteddata = importdata(prf_string(1,1), DELIMITER, HEADERLINES);

[Alex]

I resolved the error by using:

   unformatteddata = importdata(prf_string{1}, DELIMITER, HEADERLINES);

Answer 1

[Prasanth Sunkara]

Hi Alex,

The issue is not with the "importdata" function.

The below command which you used to concatenate the two char arrays should throw a Dimension mismatch error.

>> prf_string(1,1) = strcat(prf_name, prf_ext);

I do not see the need to use array indexing here.

Just use,

>> prf_string = strcat(prf_name, prf_ext);

I believe that would solve your issue.

PS: Refer this link on how to work with character arrays & strings.

[Alex]

This caused the same error, "??? Error using ==> importdata at 136 Unable to open file." I resolved the error by using:

   unformatteddata = importdata(prf_string{1}, DELIMITER, HEADERLINES);