Reading multiple non-sequential *.txt files containing both text and numbers

Hi everyone,

I'm a bit struggling with importing large number of text files into Matlab. I think the bit I'm having difficulty is "delimeter" and number of columns in each file where it starts with 2 column then 3 on the second line then 2 in the rest. I've tried textscan, load and importdata so far but had no luck.

On a seperate note, I do not need the text, I just need the numbers to be imported.

To give you a deeper insight, I attach the some of the files. These are the first batch. The second batch of files comes with a name:

• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta2_1.txt
• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta2_5.txt
• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta2_10.txt
• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta2_20.txt
• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta2_30.txt

However, the third batch does not include "..cbeta3_30.txt", therefore this batch looks something like this:

• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta3_1.txt
• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta3_5.txt
• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta3_10.txt
• beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta3_20.txt

Then, the following batches loop for "kappa" for kappa=10, 15, 20 as in kappa_10, kappa_15 and kappa_20. Finally, everything will loop for beta_2 and beta_3.

I hope what I'm trying to achive is clear, and I can get some help.

Cheers.

Answer 1

[Mathieu NOE]

hello

this is an example that shows how I could read one then multiple text files (and applying a natural name sorting)

you can expand on that

I noticed the data are spread in two sections in your files but the code shows how to retrieve both data sets;

you can build on that , I don't know how you want to further organize the data as you process all the text files;

the natural sorting code is from FEX : Natural-Order Filename Sort - File Exchange - MATLAB Central (mathworks.com)

I attached the two functions for convenience

my code is bellow :

clc
clearvars


%% read one file (example 1)
filename = 'beta_1_kappa_05_cbeta1_1.txt';
[data1,data2] = myreadfunction(filename);
figure(1)
plot(data1)
hold on 
plot(data2)
hold off

%% read multiple files  (example 2)
fileDir = pwd; % currrent directory

fileNames = dir(fullfile(fileDir,'*.txt')); % get list of files in directory
fileNames_sorted = natsortfiles({fileNames.name}); % sort file names into order (https://fr.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/47434-natural-order-filename-sort)
m = length (fileNames_sorted);

%% main loop for data extraction and concatenation
outdata = [];
figure(2);

for k = 1:m
    [data1,data2] = myreadfunction(fullfile(fileDir, fileNames_sorted{k})) ;
    
    plot(data1)
    hold on 
    plot(data2)
        % your code here...

       
    
end



%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
function [data1,data2] = myreadfunction(filename)

    a = readlines(filename);
    % find / extract the two sets of data - separated by text
    start_indexes = find(contains(a,'(('));
    stop_indexes = find(strcmp(a,')'));

    data1 = str2num(char(a(start_indexes(1)+1:stop_indexes(1)-1)));% first (upper) segment of data
    data2 = str2num(char(a(start_indexes(2)+1:stop_indexes(2)-1)));% second (lower) segment of data

end

[Oguzhan M]

Hi Mathieu,

Thank you very much for the answer!

Best.

[Mathieu NOE]

My pleasure , as always !