How do I ignore characters in a text file

So I have this file, (linked above) given to me and I need...

• To put the first two integers into one matrix named "date" with two columns
• Ignore the two character columns
• Put the other next two set of numbers in another matrix consisting of two columns
• And then I need to put the next four set of numbers into a matrix consisting of four columns
• And I can only put them into matrixes using the textread() function, not textscan or anything else

So the problem that I face is that I don't know how to ignore the character strings when taking into account the rest of the file.

So one of the closest attempts so far was when I did this code:

FILENAME = 'AU_SB_2020_08.txt';
[fid, msg] = fopen(FILENAME, 'r'); 
if fid <= 0
    fprintf( 'File not available\n' )
else
    % file exist continue
    [month, day, place, name, score1, score2, s1, s2, s3, s4] = textread(...
        FILENAME, '%f %f %s %s %f %f %f %f %f %f');
    fclose(fid);
end

but obviously that saves the two character columns instead of ignoring them, so that didn't work.

I also feel like I got close when I did this code (just trying to get the date into one matrix for right now):

FILENAME = 'AU_SB_2020_08.txt';
[fid, msg] = fopen(FILENAME, 'r'); 
if fid <= 0
    fprintf( 'File not available\n' )
else
    % file exist continue
    [date] = textread(FILENAME, '%f')
    fclose(fid);
end

but for that one it says "Trouble reading floating point number from file (row 3, field 1) ==>" which I think is because there's a random extra whitespace in the file.

I've tried lots of researching and going over notes and I can't seem to find out how to fix this, so that's why I turned over to the internet.

Answer 1

[Geoff Hayes]

Cole - since this is homework, we can only give out hints...so there is an example at textread that describes how to ignore a specific column in the file. You still need to acknowledge it in the format string but there is a way to indicate (within that string) how to ignore the column. As for putting the first two columns of data (from the file) into one matrix, consider how to - if given a matrix - access the first and second columns: A(:,1) and (A:,2)...