How do I read in this text file using fopen fclose and fscanf and then split each column into variables?

I have linked my text file, I need to use functions suh as fopen, fclose and fscanf to read in the text file. Once read in I then need to figure out how to split each column eg MPG etc into their own variables. I have been stuck on this for over 2 weeks now and cant seem to make any progress.

Thank you for any help

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

If you have R2013b or later, use readtable:

T1 = readtable('car_data.txt',  'VariableNamingRule','preserve');

with:

FirstFiveRows = T1(1:5,:)

producing:

FirstFiveRows =

  5×9 table

    MPG    Cylinders    displacement    horsepower    weight    acceleration    model year    origin              car name           
    ___    _________    ____________    __________    ______    ____________    __________    ______    _____________________________

    18         8            307            130         3504           12            70          1       {'chevrolet chevelle malibu'}
    15         8            350            165         3693         11.5            70          1       {'buick skylark 320'        }
    18         8            318            150         3436           11            70          1       {'plymouth satellite'       }
    16         8            304            150         3433           12            70          1       {'amc rebel sst'            }
    17         8            302            140         3449         10.5            70          1       {'ford torino'              }

See Access Data in Tables to understand how to work with them if you are not familiar with them.

.

[Aidan Goy]

Thank you for this, I would like to learn how to do it "manually" also by uing fuctions such as fopen, fclose and fscanf, could you suggest some reading that would help me product the same result when using those functions?

thanks

[Star Strider]

My pleasure!

Instead of fscanf, an easier solution would be to use textscan. Each column would be read in as a different cell array unless you set CollectOutput to true.

I support your wanting to learn to use the more basic functions, however they are more trouble than they’re worth for reading files. I migrated away from them as soon as better functions were introduced. (I’ve been using MATLAB since 1993, and suffered through getting fscanf to work for severall years. I am more than ecstatic at not having to use it now!)