Select an unknown variable from .Mat file

A .mat file has the variables

 stateman
  Name      Size              Bytes  Class     Attributes
  val       1x1000             8000  double              

 Statefam
  Name              Size                Bytes  Class     Attributes
  statelab          1x16999            135992  double              
  ingrate           1x1                     8  double

I want to automatically pick the variable with largest byte from a .mat file when selected by a user. Thank you guys

[Jan]

I have edited the question to make it readable. See http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/13205-tutorial-how-to-format-your-question-with-markup. Didn't you see, that the missing format impedes the readability?

[Evans Gyan]

Well noted Jan

Answer 1

[Jan]

matObj  = matfile('YourFile.mat');
details = whos(matObj);
[maxBytes, index] = max([details.bytes]);
maxName = details(index).name;

Now explain what "pick the variable" means. Do you want to import this variable?

data = matObj.(maxName);
% Or
data = load('YourFile.mat', maxName)

[Paul Richardson]

I had a similar question; this answer has helped a lot, so many thanks.