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Reading External Data

One uses the load command to read in external data that is in a tabular format. The load routine returns a matrix that contains the data. Matlab comments (prefaced with a % sign) can be included in the data.

load filename Extracts the values from the file with name 'filename.mat'.
The data is placed in a variable with the name filename.

load filename.ext Extracts the values from the file with name 'filename.ext'.
The data is placed in a variable with the name filename.

Samples

% Given a file testdata.dat with the entries
3.0 3.0
4.0 4.0
5.0 7.0

% read the data then print it out

 load testdata.dat
 testdata

 testdata =
     3     3
     4     4
     5     7

# Given a file testdata2.dat with the entries
% x y
3.0 2.0
4.0 3.0
5.0 4.0

% read the data, then print and plot the data

  load testdata2.dat
  testdata2

  testdata2 =

     3     2
     4     3
     5     4

 plot(testdata2(:,1), testdata2(:,2))

load filename	Extracts the values from the file with name 'filename.mat'. The data is placed in a variable with the name filename.
load filename.ext	Extracts the values from the file with name 'filename.ext'. The data is placed in a variable with the name filename.