Why do I have an Error using readtable?

Does anyone know why I get the following error when running my code (shown below):

Reading failed at line 26. All lines of a text file must have the same

number of delimiters. Line 26 has 0 delimiters, while preceding lines

have 4.

Note: readtable detected the following parameters:

'Delimiter', '\t ', 'MultipleDelimsAsOne', true, 'ReadVariableNames',

false, 'Format', '%q%f%f%f%f'

Error in EXP2_Ver11_Evaluation_of_Meteonorm_simulation (line 68)

T = readtable(File_from_Meteo2, 'Headerlines', 12); %table

starts at line 12

The error mentions "Line 26" but I only ask it to read upto line 12 maximum.

I have also attached one of the files I am reading.

months=1:12;
for m=1:length(months)
tempFileName2 = sprintf('t%d_o%d_zero-mon.txt',t,o);%get the zero file     
            File_from_Meteo2 = append(pathResults, tempFileName2); %Combine path and file name then assign it to the variable 'File_from_Meteo' to access the file
            T = readtable(File_from_Meteo2, 'Headerlines', 12); %table starts at line 12  
            %If the txt file is for t=1, (i.e. tilt of 0) it represents a situation with no tilt, therefore read colum "H_Ghhor"
            if t==1
                zero_subset = T(m:m, 'H_Gh');
            %Otherewise the txt file represents a situation with a tilt, therefore read colum "H_Gkhor"
            else
                zero_subset = T(m:m,'H_Gk');
            end

Answer 1

[Dave B]

I don't see where you sepcified the last row you wanted to read, you specified to ignore the first 12. Range is good for this kind of thing:

t=readtable('t1_o1_zero-mon.txt','Delimiter','\t','Range','13:24')

t = 12×5 table
     Var1      Var2    Var3    Var4    Var5
    _______    ____    ____    ____    ____

    {'Jan'}     33      17      55      0.5
    {'Feb'}     52      29      60      1.4
    {'Mar'}     97      51      97      5.6
    {'Apr'}    123      60     113      9.7
    {'May'}    161      91     115     13.7
    {'Jun'}    178      79     160       18
    {'Jul'}    176      76     165     19.3
    {'Aug'}    153      67     148     18.7
    {'Sep'}    105      52     102     14.5
    {'Oct'}     63      42      51     10.2
    {'Nov'}     33      18      49      4.9
    {'Dec'}     24      16      32      1.2

As a bonus, you can also read the variable names directly:

t=readtable('t1_o1_zero-mon.txt', 'Delimiter', '\t', 'Range', '11:24', 'ReadVariableNames', true)

t = 12×5 table
     Month     H_Gh    H_Dh    H_Bn     Ta 
    _______    ____    ____    ____    ____

    {'Jan'}     33      17      55      0.5
    {'Feb'}     52      29      60      1.4
    {'Mar'}     97      51      97      5.6
    {'Apr'}    123      60     113      9.7
    {'May'}    161      91     115     13.7
    {'Jun'}    178      79     160       18
    {'Jul'}    176      76     165     19.3
    {'Aug'}    153      67     148     18.7
    {'Sep'}    105      52     102     14.5
    {'Oct'}     63      42      51     10.2
    {'Nov'}     33      18      49      4.9
    {'Dec'}     24      16      32      1.2

[Hannah]

Thank you for your reply.

I changed my line to:

 T = readtable(File_from_Meteo2, 'Delimiter','\t','Range','13:24');

and got this error:

Error using readtable (line 216)

Invalid parameter name: Range.

Error in EXP2_Ver11_Evaluation_of_Meteonorm_simulation

(line 86)

T = readtable(File_from_Meteo2,

'Delimiter','\t','Range','13:24'); %table

starts at line 12

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong.

[Walter Roberson]

Which MATLAB version are you using? I am not sure that numeric Range were supported originally.

[Dave B]

The 'Range' option was introduced in R2020a

[Hannah]

oh I see. I'm using the R2019a. is there an alternative I can use for 'range'?

[Dave B]

Absolutely, it's just very slightly more complicated. I tested this code on R2019a:

fn='t1_o1_zero-mon.txt';
opts=detectImportOptions(fn, 'VariableNamesLine', 11, 'Delimiter', '\t');
opts.DataLines=[13 24];
t=readtable(fn,opts)

t = 12×5 table
     Month     H_Gh    H_Dh    H_Bn     Ta 
    _______    ____    ____    ____    ____

    {'Jan'}     33      17      55      0.5
    {'Feb'}     52      29      60      1.4
    {'Mar'}     97      51      97      5.6
    {'Apr'}    123      60     113      9.7
    {'May'}    161      91     115     13.7
    {'Jun'}    178      79     160       18
    {'Jul'}    176      76     165     19.3
    {'Aug'}    153      67     148     18.7
    {'Sep'}    105      52     102     14.5
    {'Oct'}     63      42      51     10.2
    {'Nov'}     33      18      49      4.9
    {'Dec'}     24      16      32      1.2

[Hannah]

great! thank you :)