To achieve your workflow, along with the file you should all pass "File Import Options" to the readtable() functio. These options define how the file will be read in MATLAB. You can also set the variable names, variable types and delimiter in these import options. To know more about import options, check the documentation link below:
See the following steps to achieve your workflow. "abc.txt" is the subset of your file from your question.
opts = detectImportOptions('abc.txt')
opts =
DelimitedTextImportOptions with properties:
Format Properties:
Delimiter: {','}
Whitespace: '\b\t '
LineEnding: {'\n' '\r' '\r\n'}
CommentStyle: {}
ConsecutiveDelimitersRule: 'split'
LeadingDelimitersRule: 'keep'
EmptyLineRule: 'skip'
Encoding: 'windows-1252'
Replacement Properties:
MissingRule: 'fill'
ImportErrorRule: 'fill'
ExtraColumnsRule: 'addvars'
Variable Import Properties: Set types by name using setvartype
VariableNames: {'rank_page_upvotes_comments_age_subreddit'}
VariableTypes: {'char'}
SelectedVariableNames: {'rank_page_upvotes_comments_age_subreddit'}
VariableOptions: Show all 1 VariableOptions
Access VariableOptions sub-properties using setvaropts/getvaropts
Now change the delimiter, variableNames and variableTypes as per your requirement.
opts.Delimiter = {'.'};
opts.VariableNames= {'rank','page','upvotes','comments','age','subreddit'}
opts =
DelimitedTextImportOptions with properties:
Format Properties:
Delimiter: {'.'}
Whitespace: '\b\t '
LineEnding: {'\n' '\r' '\r\n'}
CommentStyle: {}
ConsecutiveDelimitersRule: 'split'
LeadingDelimitersRule: 'keep'
EmptyLineRule: 'skip'
Encoding: 'windows-1252'
Replacement Properties:
MissingRule: 'fill'
ImportErrorRule: 'fill'
ExtraColumnsRule: 'addvars'
Variable Import Properties: Set types by name using setvartype
VariableNames: {'rank', 'page', 'upvotes' ... and 3 more}
VariableTypes: {'char', 'char', 'char' ... and 3 more}
SelectedVariableNames: {'rank', 'page', 'upvotes' ... and 3 more}
VariableOptions: Show all 6 VariableOptions
Access VariableOptions sub-properties using setvaropts/getvaropts
Now pass this "opts" as File Import Options to "readtable"
readtable('abc.txt',opts)
ans =
6×6 table
rank page upvotes comments age subreddit
____ ____ _______ ________ ___ _______________
'1' '1' '40400' '1283' '3' 'OldSchoolCool'
'2' '1' '19200' '906' '4' 'funny'
'3' '1' '31800' '1709' '5' 'politics'
'4' '1' '40300' '780' '5' 'bestof'
'5' '1' '5844' '1277' '3' 'soccer'
'6' '1' '30200' '256' '5' 'aww'
