trouble importing multiple .csv files with strings in first row

Hi all,

I wrote below MATLAB code to import multiple csv files named B00Pr1-0001 to B00Pr1-n in a folder and save them in a cell:

l=dir('B00Pr1-*.csv');   % list .csv files
n=length(l);     
data=cell(1,n);     
for i=1:n
  data(i)=csvread(l(i).name);
end

The problem is that my csv files look like below (its actual size is bigger) and have strings in the first row so I cannot use csvread because I get the following error:

Error using dlmread (line 147)

Mismatch between file and format character vector.

Trouble reading 'Numeric' field from file (row number 1, field number 1) ==>

nodenumber, x-coordinate, y-coordinate,velocity-magnitude, x-velocity,

y-velocity, temperature\n

nodenumber	    x-coordinate	    y-coordinate	velocity-magnitude	      x-velocity	      y-velocity	     temperature
1	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.98E+01
2	1.25E-04	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.93E+01
3	2.50E-04	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.87E+01
4	3.75E-04	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.80E+01
5	5.00E-04	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.74E+01
6	6.25E-04	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.67E+01
7	7.50E-04	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.60E+01
8	8.75E-04	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.54E+01
9	1.00E-03	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.47E+01
10	1.12E-03	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.40E+01
11	1.25E-03	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.34E+01
12	1.37E-03	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.27E+01
13	1.50E-03	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	0.00E+00	9.21E+01

my goal is loading all csv files data do some math on the data and save them in a matrix. What do you suggest to solve this problem?

thank you in adavance!

Answer 1

[Guillaume]

csvread (and dlmread) can't read the headers of csv files. You can tell them to skip the header:

data(i)=csvread(l(i).name, 1, 0);  %skip 1st row

But better would be to use the modern tools of matlab and use readtable to actually parse the header and use it to name the variables (columns) of the table:

data(i) = readtable(l(i).name);  %why not call the variable csvlist instead of l? It's instantaneously clearer what its purpose is?