Text Files

Delimited and formatted text files

Read and write numeric and non-numeric data in delimited and formatted text files, including .csv and .txt files.

Tools

Import Tool

Import data from file

Live Editor Tasks

Import Data

Import data from a file in the Live Editor (Since R2023a)

Functions

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Read and Write Tables or Timetables

Basic Import and Export

`readtable`	Create table from file
`writetable`	Write table to file
`readtimetable`	Create timetable from file
`writetimetable`	Write timetable to file

Define Import Rules

`detectImportOptions`	Create import options based on file content
`delimitedTextImportOptions`	Import options object for delimited text
`fixedWidthImportOptions`	Import options object for fixed-width text files
`xmlImportOptions`	Import options object for XML files (Since R2021a)
`htmlImportOptions`	Import options object for HTML files (Since R2021b)
`wordDocumentImportOptions`	Import options object for Microsoft Word document files (Since R2021b)
`getvaropts`	Get variable import options
`setvaropts`	Set variable import options
`setvartype`	Set variable data types
`preview`	Preview eight rows from file using import options

Read and Write Matrices and Arrays

`readmatrix`	Read matrix from file
`writematrix`	Write a matrix to a file
`readcell`	Create cell array from file
`writecell`	Write cell array to file
`readvars`	Read variables from file
`textscan`	Read formatted data from text file or string
`type`	Display contents of file
`fileread`	Read contents of file as text
`readlines`	Read lines of file as string array (Since R2020b)
`writelines`	Write text to file (Since R2022a)

Objects

tabularTextDatastore Datastore for tabular text files

Topics

Read Tabular Data from Text Files

Import Text Files
MATLAB^® can read and write numeric and nonnumeric data from delimited and formatted text files, including .csv and .txt files.
Read Text File Data Using Import Tool
Preview tabular data from a text file or the clipboard and select data to import using the Import tool.
Import Data from Text File to Table
The best way to represent tabular data from text files in MATLAB is in a table since tables can store heterogeneous (a mix of numeric and text) data, as well as variable and row names.
Control How MATLAB Imports Your Data
If you want to control the import process beyond the options provided by the readtable function, such as defining how to handle missing data or errors, then create an import options object before importing the data.
Import Block of Mixed Data from Text File into Table or Cell Array
Import block formatted tabular data from a text file into a table or a cell array.
Import Numeric Data from Text Files into Matrix
In addition to importing numeric tabular data from a text file as a table using readtable, you can also import this data as a matrix into the MATLAB workspace.
Import Block of Numeric Data from Text File
Read arbitrary block-formatted numeric data from a text file into cell arrays.
Read and Analyze Large Tabular Text File
This example shows how to create a datastore for a large text file containing tabular data, and then read and process the data one block at a time or one file at a time.
Import Dates and Times from Text Files
Import formatted dates and times (such as '01/01/01' or '12:30:45') from column oriented tabular data.
Read Collection or Sequence of Text Files
Read and manage data from a collection of text files.

Write Tabular Data to Text Files

Write Data to Text Files
Export tabular data contained in tables, cell arrays, or numeric arrays from the MATLAB workspace to text files.