% read in data
fid = fopen('filepath');
data = textscan(fid,'%f%f%f%f','HeaderLines',2,'CollectOutput',1);
data = data{:};
fid = fclose(fid);
% retrieve column 1
data(:,1)
% Number of rows
size(data,1)
I assumed the example of the text file doesn't have intervealing blank lines.
Oleg
