Is there an example of how to save column-separated data under the column header name in MATLAB?

If my data looks like:

 H1  H2  H3  H4

 0   1.0  5   6

 1   2.3  7   8

 2   3.2  9   1

 3   4.7  2   3

I want the data to be saved in MATLAB as:

whos

               Name        Size       Elements     Bytes    Density   Complex

                 H1       4 by 1             4        32       Full      No 

                 H2       4 by 1             4        32       Full      No 

                 H3       4 by 1             4        32       Full      No 

                 H4       4 by 1             4        32       Full      No

Grand total is 16 elements using 128 bytes

H1

 H1 =

      0

      1

      2

      3

H2

 H2 =

     1.0000

     2.3000

     3.2000

     4.7000

H3

 H3 =

      5

      7

      9

      2

H4

 H4 =

      6

      8

      1

      3

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

You can use IMPORTDATA to import data like this. For help with IMPORTDATA, type the following at the MATLAB command prompt:

help importdata

You could also use the following example:

Here is an example of how to read a data file with columns into MATLAB variable names. The variable names in MATLAB match the column headers of the data file.

Save this as test.dat:

 H1  H2  H3  H4

 0   1.0  5   6

 1   2.3  7   8

 2   3.2  9   1

 3   4.7  2   3

Save this as test.m:

% get a file handle

fid=fopen('test.dat','r');

% read in the first line

line = fgetl(fid);

% parse the line for variable names

if(~isempty(line))

    zz = 1;

    line_size = size(line,2);

    tmpstring = [];

    varlist = [];

    while(zz <= line_size)

      % assume the variable names are separated by spaces

      if (real(line(zz)) ~= 32)

        tmpstring = [tmpstring line(zz) ];

        zz = zz+1;

      else

        if(~isempty(varlist))

          varlist = str2mat(varlist,tmpstring);

        else

          varlist = str2mat(tmpstring);

        end

        tmpstring = [];

        % increment the list until the next non-space

        while(zz < line_size & real(line(zz)) == 32 )

          zz = zz+1;

        end

      end

    end

    if(~isempty(tmpstring))

      varlist = str2mat(varlist,tmpstring);

    end

end

tmpmatrix = fscanf(fid,'%f %f %f %f',[4,inf])';

fclose(fid);

% assign the variable names

for(zz = 1:size(varlist,1))

    eval( [ varlist(zz,:) ' = tmpmatrix(:, ' num2str(zz) ');'])

end

clear ans fid line line_size tmpmatrix tmpstring varlist zz