%open file
fid = fopen(YourFile,'rt');
%figure out how many columns are there
firstline = fgetl(fid);
ncol = 1 + sum(firstline == '|');
%reset to beginning of file
fseek(fid,0,0);
%read data
indata = textscan(fid,repmat('%s',1,ncol),'Delimiter','|','CollectOutput',1);
%close file
fclose(fid);
The result will be indata, a cell array of strings.
