Fastest way of opening a text file and converting it to a matrix?

I currently have a large amount of text files i want to convert to matrices, each text file will have the same structure. I am currently using readmatrix but just opening and reading a few takes too long. Is there a faster way?

Answer 1

[Rik]

 doc fscanf

If you know the format, using that knowledge always improves speed, since the more complicated tools don't need to spend time figuring out the file structure.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

If your file happens to be just a rectangular block of numbers, with either blank or comma between them, then the fastest approach is to load() the file.

If your file happens to be some other form, then the fastest approach depends on the details.