Unzip and read gz files

I'm trying to unzip and read in the data of some gz files from satellites. I think I've unzipped them using the 7-zip program, but when I try to read in the unzipped ascii file it reads as either one long character that I can't view, or a bunch of lines of text that are unintelligble. The file should have some lines of text describing the different variables and their units, then a bunch of rows of data. I want to be able to put each row of data into a different column in a table in the matlab workspace, and read the text so I know which column is which variable.

I can't attach the file directly as the file format isn't supported, but the link to acces the files is https://www.ngdc.noaa.gov/stp/space-weather/satellite-data/satellite-systems/gps/data/ . Look for a file with the format ns56_140105_v1.08.ascii.gz under the satellite 56.

Thank you for any help you can provide, I'm really stuck on this.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

filename = 'ns56_140105_v1.08.ascii';
S = fileread(filename);

grouplabels = regexp(S, '#\s+"ELEMENT_LABELS":\[(?<labels>[^\]]+)', 'names', 'lineanchors');
varnames = cell2mat(regexp({varnames.vars},'(?<var>\w+)', 'names'));

numeric_part = cell2mat(textscan(S, '', 'CommentStyle','#', 'collectoutput', true));

YourTable = array2table(numeric_part, 'VariableNames', {varnames.var});

[Cordelia David]

Hey Walter, thank you for your answer. After trying this code, I got the error: Unable to resolve the name varnames.vars. This occurs at line varnames = cell2mat(regexp({varnames.vars},'(?<var>\w+)', 'names'));

[Walter Roberson]

varnames = cell2mat(regexp({grouplabels. labels},'(?<var>\w+)', 'names'));