An efficient way to import data containing letters and numbers?

Hello,

I am trying to generate some netcdf files with data sets containing numerical values along with data flags represented by numbers. Here is what some data looks like:

01108431895   487X   445X   599X   662X   726X 
01108431896   484X   535X   568X   702E   778X 
01108431897   465X   563X   666X   657X   701X 
01108431898   531E   514E   634E   614E   752E

Is there any way to import this data and use it to create 3-d arrays so it looks exactly the way it does above, with the letter flags?

Thanks, Dan

[Dan]

Data flags represented by letters, not numbers.

[Image Analyst]

Do you want things like 487X as a single string, or as a number and a string?

[Walter Roberson]

Is the last character of each bit of data always a flag?

[Dan]

I want 487X to be a single string.

Walter, there are not always data flags as the last character.

[Image Analyst]

Your subject says you're trying to import data, but your body says you're trying to generate a netcdf file. Which is it? Read in or write out?

By the way, there is a netcdf listing in the help you know, with all kinds of things you can do with netcdf files.

[Dan]

Sorry for the unclear wording, I am trying to read in the data from a text file and then create 3-d arrays to use to write netcdf files.

I don't need help creating the netcdf file, just properly importing the data.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

fid = fopen('YourFileName', 'rt');
indata = textscan(fid, '%s%s%s%s%s%s');
fclose(fid);

Now indata{1} will be a cell array of strings which is the first column, indata{2} will be a cell array of strings which is the second column, and so on.

If everything is in a netcdf file instead of a text file, the import methods would not be the same. I am not familiar enough with netcdf to advise.

[Dan]

Thanks Walter, for some reason I couldn't get textscan to work for me before. This is exactly what I needed!