Quick question on import data

Hey everybody,

   Just some sample lines here, and I'm trying to see what they exactly do:

    data = importdata('Filename1.dat');
    ModelFile = data.data;

    Ok - I know the first line above reads in the data from the file.
    So what exactly does the second line do (especially the data.data part)?

   Now referring to these lines below, I'm trying to model it like the above 2 lines, but I'm getting errors. Can someone explain what I am doing wrong?

    helodata1 = importdata('GougeTable.dat');
    HeloModelFile1 = helodata1.helodata1;
    helodata2 = importdata('MasterDataChart.dat');
    HeloModelFile2 = helodata2.helodata2;

      Thanks!
        -J

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

http://www.mathworks.com/help/techdoc/ref/importdata.html

and read the Output Arguments section.

HeloModelFile1 = helodata1.data;

HeloModelFile2 = helodata2.data;

[Jesse]

Walter,

Thanks for taking a look and the help. I understand it a little better.

One more quick question. My other data file (the MasterDataChart one), I'm still getting an error. It's saying it's unable to load it and that I should try textscan or fread. So I decided to go with fread, and I was going through the routine line by line until I hit an error. Allow me to explain:

helodata2helper = fopen('MasterDataChart.dat'); %Use fopen first to open the file

helodata2 = fread(helodata2helper); %From the help, fread(fileID), so that's the helper

HeloModelFile2=helodata2.data;

The error says "Attempt to reference field of non-structure array." Now I'm confused since this is the error I was getting even before you responded. I thought I was doing ok looking at the help.

Any other advice?

Thanks!

-J

[Jesse]

Oh sorry, the first 2 lines are ok in that brief code snippet I just sent, but when I do the third line (with the helodata2.data), that's when I get the error. Sorry.