Importing a signed integer value with a space

Hello everyone,

I have a data file, i'm trying to import into MATLAB. Several columns are signed integers (see example below):

'+ 24.05' '+ 2.429' '+ 1.460' '+ 2.236'

'+ 24.05' '+ 2.429' '+ 1.459' '+ 2.237'

'+ 24.05' '+ 2.429' '+ 1.462' '+ 2.235'

I'm using the datastore function and then modifying the SelectedFormats setting to adjust to the format to correctly import the data.

I'm trying to use the signed integer values format ('%d') to import this data, however it does not reconize the values above as such. I believe its due the space between the sign and the integer.

Is there a Optional operator(s) that i can add to ignore the space? Or am i perhaps wrong in my assumption that the space is the issue?

Answer 1

[hosein Javan]

if your data are all positive, then you can ignore plus sign. and your data is not integer use single or double precion. here's a code that imports the data from a text file to matrix.

fileid = fopen('scan1.txt')
c = textscan(fileid,'''+ %f''	''+ %f''	''+ %f''	''+ %f''')
c = cell2mat(c)


c =
   24.0500    2.4290    1.4600    2.2360
   24.0500    2.4290    1.4590    2.2370
   24.0500    2.4290    1.4620    2.2350

[Sander Bovee]

Hi Hosein,

Sadly not all the data is positive. I indeed had your solution implemented but in the latest file some columns now contain negative data. I've also once imported it has characters and and then converted it to doubles with a IF statement based on the sign but this is quite a roundabout way of going at it + very time consuming.

I'm not too familiar with optional operators so i was wondering if this could be solved with those.

[hosein Javan]

if you can copy and paste the data into an .m file like below, only one line of code does the job.

str = {
'+ 24.05'	'+ 2.429'	'+ 1.460'	'- 2.236'
'+ 24.05'	'+ 2.429'	'+ 1.459'	'- 2.237'
'+ 24.05'	'+ 2.429'	'+ 1.462'	'+ 2.235'
};
c = cellfun(@str2num,str)

c =

24.0500 2.4290 1.4600 -2.2360

24.0500 2.4290 1.4590 -2.2370

24.0500 2.4290 1.4620 2.2350

[Sander Bovee]

Thanks! I've just imported it has a character vector and used your cellfun to converted it to doubles.

That works and is a whole lot less complicated that my previous IF statement solution. Thank you both!

[hosein Javan]

don't mention it. you can even store the matrix data in a .mat file afterwards so you won't need to convert string to number every call of your script or function.