How to load multiple files sequentially with no standard extension into MATLAB at once

I have NASA prognostics bearing dataset with filenames being timestamps with dots resulting in file types like 46, 57, 55 etc. (https://ti.arc.nasa.gov/tech/dash/groups/pcoe/prognostic-data-repository/). The folder 'txt' ( in the path: NASAPrognosticsBearingDatasets -> 3rd_test.rar -> 4th_test -> txt) contains 6324 files with each file having 20480 rows and 4 columns. I want to load the files sequenctially into a matlab as 4 different tables of ( 6324 x 20480 dimension) for each column. Is there any way to do so?

Answer 1

[dpb]

If you place them all in a clean directory, then

d=dir(fullfile('TheBearingDataSetDirectory','*.*'));

will return all in a directory struct over which you can iterate.

From there, simply process the files in a loop and do whatever with each in turn.

It would appear if they are timestamped and you want to build a large file over the time available loading them into a timetable or timeseris object could be the way to proceed; that would be influenced by just what intend to do with the result as to the more suitable...or whether some other storage entirely.

But, it would seem you'll want/need to convert the filenames retrieved into datetime and sort to put them in time sequence as part of the process...it's probably may want/need to make it a two-step process--first read the filenames and build the ordered sequence; then use that order vector to read the files to build the dataset.