How to convert .MAT to .DAT format?

I would like to ask you about converting the data file format to .dat so that the software intended for further actions, could read the file and thereby, perform the advanced processing.

ABOUT THE DATA IN .MAT FORMAT:

I have a SONAR data consisting of 49184 rows and 192 columns in the form of a matrix in .MAT format. I need to convert this format into .xtf as the NaviSuite software doesn't read .mat format.

The data is organized into rows and columns, i.e. rows consisting right from the Header (Row No.:1) to Ping No., Packet No., Roll, Pitch, Lat, Long, Time stamp, Data Validity (Header), Actual Data (Row: 32-49183) and Footer (Row No.: 49184). A total of 192 pings were recorded, with each column representing one ping.

I have seen that Son2xtf converts .dat to .xtf so thought of using this facility for converting the data to .xtf!!!

.MAT TO .DAT CONVERSION QUERY:

But the question arises on converting the .MAT to .DAT,

How to convert .mat to .dat?

Since the .MAT file is in a graphic form i.e. Matrix consisting of rows and columns, I would like to have my data converted into graphic form only in .dat format.

Kindly guide me in this.

Sincere thanks!

Kind Regards,

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

That could be virtually anything. It's like if some numbers were stored into a .txt file. Could be virtually anything in any format in there. You'll have to look inside Son2xtf to see what .dat format it's expecting.

[Shashwat Shukla]

I contacted them and they said that it has to be of the form of the matrix (graphic form) as the .mat have.

So, the file needs to be stored in the ASCII format in .dat!

[Walter Roberson]

save with the -ascii option, if everything is numeric ?

[Shashwat Shukla]

But Sir, how to separate header file from the main data, because if I use the entire data of .mat format to save in ascii and convert in .dat , then it will take the whole data as the actual data since it is represented in matrix format and no information is mentioned whether the first few rows are header information. So, in my view it will take the entire matrix of 49184x192 as the actual data and convert in .dat ascii format.

How to separate the header information part because it wont take directly for sure.

Sincere thanks.

Regards, Shashwat

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

son2xtf appears to be described http://bb.sideimageforums.com/viewtopic.php?t=280 and appears to be from late 2007. I do not see any evidence at this time that they have documented their proprietary data format. It is not going to be practical to convert .mat into a file that can be read by son2xtf in order to output a xtf as the final file.

[Steven Lord]

It's not going to be practical to do that without some assistance from the author of the code (who last posted to those forums in 2008) and/or from the manufacturer of the instrument that generates the data files in that proprietary data format.