How to read a formatted text (ASCII) file in Matlab?

1. If a text (ASCII) file contains data with different data types then 'load' command is not useful. Then, one option can be to use TEXTSCAN with the format specifier as shown below.


fid = fopen(fileName)
formatSpec = '%f %s %f %f'

data = textscan(fid,formatSpec,3600*1,'Delimiter',',','CollectOutput', true);

fclose(fid)

The output will be a cell array. Each cell contains each of the elements. If you...
CollectOutput - will collect the consecutive data of same type in a single cell array.
Delimiter - lets you specify the delimiter used in the text file. If do not use the 'Delimiter' option then space is treated as the delimiter.


2. Many examples are given in the Matlab link given above:

How to load the Matlab figure and extract data from the figure?

% To load figure

h = hgload('RectangularChipShape.fig')


get(h) % lists all the properties linked to this class
set(h) % lists all the properties that can be configured


Few examples:

set(gca,'fontsize',26);

hline = findobj(gcf, 'type', 'line');
hData = findobj(gcf, 'type', 'data');
set(hline,'LineWidth',4)
set(hline,'LineStyle',':')

idx = [4 5];
set(hline(idx),'Marker','*')


%To extract the data from the figure

axesObjs = get(h, 'Children'); %axes handles
dataObjs = get(axesObjs, 'Children'); %handles to low-level graphics objects in axes


objTypes = get(dataObjs{2});
xdata = get(dataObjs{2}, 'XData'); %data from low-level grahics objects
ydata = get(dataObjs{2}, 'YData');

%To extract data from Surf/Mesh plot
m = magic(10);

figure; h1 = mesh(m); % works for 'surf' also

h12 =gcf; % returns the figure number h1Children = get(h12,'Children');
h1Chotas = get(h1Children,'Children'); % this is equal to h1
xD = get(h1Chotas,'xdata')
yD = get(h1Chotas,'ydata')
zD = get(h1Chotas,'zdata'


% Detailed explanation is available at:

http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/learn_matlab/understanding-handle-graphics-objects.html