How to filter out missing variables for functions when importing .txt files

I am importing a text file and evaluating the data in the file versus baseline data. The problem I am having is that the text file to be evaluated is sometimes missing variables.

How can I efficiently besides, using ~exist() for every variable, filter out the data that is not present

Answer 1

[Sean de Wolski]

First, I warn you that this approach of "poofing" variables might be a bad idea that could lead to difficult to debug issues further down the line.

Second, to do this efficiently you could use the structure output from whos() and ismember() to identify missing variables:

clear;
x = 1;
y = 7;
varsWanted = {'x','y','z'};
varsPresent = whos;
missing = varsWanted(~ismember(varsWanted,{varsPresent.name}));

[Andrew]

Thank you this works.