How to read information from a txt file header?

I have several hundred txt files with the below format.

http://cid-533c6ad99f5ed0c5.office.live.com/self.aspx/.Public/data2.txt

Is there a way that I can not only read the numeric data, but also the Date, Time, Latitude, and Longitude from the header automatically?

Thank you.

Answer 1

[Matt Tearle]

Assuming the header information is always the same format (or at least same number of lines):

fid = fopen('data2.txt','rt');
tmp = textscan(fid,'%*s = %f',5,'headerlines',9);
metainfo = tmp{1}
hdrs = textscan(fid,repmat('%s',1,8),1,'delimiter',',');
units = textscan(fid,repmat('%s',1,8),1,'delimiter',',');
tmp = textscan(fid,repmat('%f',1,8),'delimiter',',','collectoutput',true);
data = tmp{1}
fclose(fid);

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.

.

I'm hesitant to even suggest this, but... you could replace the third line with:

for k=1:size(tmp{1},1)
  eval([tmp{1}{k},' = tmp{2}(k);']);
end

This will give you variables DATE, LATITUDE, etc with the values read from the file.

And may Cleve have mercy on my soul.

[Liqing]

Hi Matt,

This is amazing!

Thank you so much for the big help.

Liqing

[Matt Tearle]

Glad it worked for you! Let me know if you need help deciphering any of the syntax :)