Your example input is attached as SomeNameValueList.txt.
Calling
rv = ReadNameValueList('SomeNameValueList.txt')
plot(rv.distance, rv.time);
gives you a struct rv with, in this example, fields distance and time:
rv =
struct with fields:
distance: [10 20 32 45]
time: [1 2 3 4]
which you can plot to get
The function just reads these lines sequentially and appends the arrays in the same name fields in the rv.
If you had different input like
hopp=42
hopp=44
topp=32
hopp=21
pi=3.1415
# some comment, ignored
; another comment, ignored
you would get
rv =
struct with fields:
hopp: [42 44 21]
topp: 32
pi: 3.1415
