you can quickly scan the file(s) for the number of header lines like
file= 'Graphite_Node_test.txt';
fid = fopen('Graphite_Node_Test.txt') ;
hlines= 0;
while ~feof(fid)
cline =fgetl(fid); %get the current line
if strcmp(cline(1),'!') | strcmp(cline(1),'$') %check if it starts with ! or $
hlines = hlines+1; %if it does increment headerline counter
else
break %break out once past header
end
end
fseek(fid,0,-1); %rewind file to start
data = textscan(fid,'%f %f','Headerlines',hlines);
fclose(fid);
disp(data)
