How to extract data from diary?

Hello,

I've used the diary function to create a diary file. When I open the diary file, I've got the following:

normal

1.0e+03 *

1.1797 0.2894 0.0010

1.1797 0.2894 -0.0010

open

1.0e+03 *

1.1797 0.2894 0.0010

1.1797 0.2894 -0.0010

normal

1.0e+03 *

1.2787 0.5115 0.0010

1.2787 0.5115 -0.0010

Now, I want to capture all the numbers that follow after the word 'normal', so I only want the numbers depicted in bold here. How do I read the diary file in Matlab and extract the numbers I want from the diary file?

Thank you.

[Rik]

The diary file is a plain text file, so you can read it like any other. Then you will have to select the lines that describe the values of normal, and make sure you correctly parse the factor.

If you want more specific help, you can attach the file to your question.

[Sam]

Hello,

Thank you Rik. I would highly appreciate a little more help. I've attached this .txt file now.

Thanks!

Answer 1

[Rik]

This would probably be far easier if you captured the output at the source, instead of parsing the diary.

This code works, but is reliant on the point that the data fits on the screen, so you don't have the column indicators.

This uses my readfile function, available on the FEX here.

fileurl='https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/uploaded_files/319027/mydiary2.txt';
data=readfile(fileurl);

counter.out=0;
counter.elem=0;
scalefactor=1;
record=false;
output=cell(0,1);
for n=1:numel(data)
    currentline=strtrim(data{n});
    if numel(currentline)<1,continue,end%blank line
    if isstrprop(currentline(1),'alpha')
        %next variable name
        scalefactor=1;%reset the scale factor
        if strcmp(currentline,'normal')
            counter.out=counter.out+1;
            counter.elem=0;
            record=true;
        else
            record=false;
        end
    elseif strcmp(currentline(end),'*')
        scalefactor=str2double(currentline(1:(end-1)));
    elseif isstrprop(currentline(1),'digit')
        if ~record,continue,end
        values=cellfun(@str2double,strsplit(currentline));
        values=values*scalefactor;
        counter.elem=counter.elem+1;
        output{counter.out,1}(counter.elem,:)=values;
    end
end

Answer 2

[Jyotirmay Mishra]

Hi,

You can import the diary file as dataset from the import data option in the home tab of MATLAB. Make sure that you select the datatype for the first coloumn as Text or else the text ''normal", "open" will be replaced by NaN.

Now you can use some logic using the a loop and some conditional statements to obtain the data after normal