ascii

Set FTP transfer mode to ASCII

Syntax

ascii(ftpobj)

Description

ascii(ftpobj) sets the FTP transfer mode for the server associated with ftpobj to ASCII. Use ASCII mode for text files, such as HTML pages and Rich Text Format (RTF) files.

Examples

collapse all

Set Transfer Mode to ASCII

Open Live Script

Download a text file from an FTP server, using the ASCII transfer mode.

First, connect to the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) FTP server.

ftpobj = ftp('ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov')

  FTP with properties:

                         Host: "ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov"
                     Username: "anonymous"
                         Port: 21
                 ServerLocale: "en_US"
                 DirParserFcn: @matlab.io.ftp.parseDirListingForUnix
                         Mode: "binary"
    LocalDataConnectionMethod: "passive"
       RemoteWorkingDirectory: "/"

The default transfer mode is binary. When you download a text file, you can use ASCII mode instead so that newline characters are converted correctly.

Set the transfer mode to ASCII. To show the current transfer mode, display the FTP object.

ascii(ftpobj)
ftpobj

  FTP with properties:

                         Host: "ftp.ngdc.noaa.gov"
                     Username: "anonymous"
                         Port: 21
                 ServerLocale: "en_US"
                 DirParserFcn: @matlab.io.ftp.parseDirListingForUnix
                         Mode: "ascii"
    LocalDataConnectionMethod: "passive"
       RemoteWorkingDirectory: "/"

Download a text file and close the connection.

mget(ftpobj,'README.txt');
close(ftpobj)

Display the beginning of README.txt. To read the copy of README.txt downloaded to your computer, use the fileread function.

readme = fileread('README.txt');
readme(1:95)

ans = 
    '                 Welcome to the 
         NOAA/National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI)'

FTP service courtesy of the National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI). See the NCEI Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, and Copyright for NCEI terms of service.