edfread

Read data from EDF/EDF+ file

Syntax

data = edfread(fileName)

data = edfread(fileName,Name=Value)

[data,annotations] = edfread(___)

Description

data = edfread(fileName) reads the European Data Format (EDF) or EDF+ file specified in fileName into a timetable, data.

data = edfread(fileName,Name=Value) reads the file into a timetable with additional options specified by one or more name-value pair arguments.

[data,annotations] = edfread(___) also returns the annotations present in the data records.

Examples

Read EDF File into Timetable

Read data from the EDF file example.edf into a timetable. The file contains two signals, ECG and ECG2. Each signal contains six data records, and each data record has a duration of 10 seconds.

tt = edfread("example.edf")

tt=6×2 timetable
    Record Time          ECG               ECG2      
    ___________    _______________    _______________

    0 sec          {1280×1 double}    {1280×1 double}
    10 sec         {1280×1 double}    {1280×1 double}
    20 sec         {1280×1 double}    {1280×1 double}
    30 sec         {1280×1 double}    {1280×1 double}
    40 sec         {1280×1 double}    {1280×1 double}
    50 sec         {1280×1 double}    {1280×1 double}

Create an edfinfo object containing information about example.edf. Verify that the signals have the expected names. Extract the sample rates of the signals using the DataRecordDuration and NumSamples properties of the object.

info = edfinfo("example.edf");

info.SignalLabels

ans = 2×1 string
    "ECG"
    "ECG2"

fs = info.NumSamples/seconds(info.DataRecordDuration)

fs = 2×1

   128
   128

Plot the first record of the first signal. For more information about accessing data in tables, see Access Data in Tables.

recnum = 1;
signum = 1;
t = (0:info.NumSamples(signum)-1)/fs(signum);
y = tt.(signum){recnum};

plot(t,y)
lgn = "Record " + recnum + ", Signal " + info.SignalLabels(signum);
legend(lgn)
hold on

Extract and plot the fifth record of the second signal.

recnum = 5;
signum = 2;
t = (0:info.NumSamples(signum)-1)/fs(signum);
y = tt.(signum){recnum};

plot(t,y,DisplayName=lgn)
hold off
xlabel("t (seconds)")

Read Subset of EDF File

Create an edfinfo object to obtain information about the EDF file example.edf. Extract the number of records and the names of the variables contained in the file.

info = edfinfo("example.edf");

nrec = info.NumDataRecords

nrec = 
6

vars = info.SignalLabels

vars = 2×1 string
    "ECG"
    "ECG2"

Read the second and fifth records corresponding to the variable ECG2. Return the signals as timetables with row times corresponding to signal sample times. Express the time information as datetime arrays.

data = edfread("example.edf", ...
    SelectedDataRecords=[2 5],SelectedSignals="ECG2", ...
    DataRecordOutputType="timetable",TimeOutputType="datetime")

data=2×1 timetable
        Record Time                ECG2       
    ____________________    __________________

    10-Oct-2020 12:02:28    {1280×1 timetable}
    10-Oct-2020 12:02:58    {1280×1 timetable}

Change the name of the row times to "Date and Time" and the name of the variable to "Electrocardiogram".

data.Properties.DimensionNames = ["Date and Time" "Variables"];
data.Properties.VariableNames = "Electrocardiogram";

data

data=2×1 timetable
       Date and Time        Electrocardiogram 
    ____________________    __________________

    10-Oct-2020 12:02:28    {1280×1 timetable}
    10-Oct-2020 12:02:58    {1280×1 timetable}

Input Arguments

fileName — Name of EDF or EDF+ file

character vector | string scalar

Name of EDF or EDF+ file, specified as a character vector or string scalar.

Depending on the location of the file, fileName can take one of these forms.

Location	Form
Current folder or folder on the MATLAB® path	Specify the name of the file in fileName. Example: "data.edf"
File in a folder	If the file is not in the current folder or in a folder on the MATLAB path, then specify the full or relative path name. Example: "C:\myFolder\data.edf" Example: "myDir\myFile.ext"

Note

edfread does not support EyeLink^® EDF files.

Data Types: char | string

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: data = edfread(fileName,SelectedSignals=["Thorax" "Abdomen"],SelectedDataRecords=[2 7],TimeOutputType="datetime") instructs edfread to read the second and seventh data records corresponding to the Thorax and Abdomen signals and return the time information as datetime arrays.

SelectedSignals — Names of signals to read

string vector | cell array of character vectors

Names of signals to read, specified as a string vector or a cell array of character vectors.

• SelectedSignals must be a subset of the signal names contained in the file. To get the names of all the signals in the file, create an edfinfo object and use the SignalLabels property.

• If this argument is not specified, edfread reads all the signals in the file.

Example: Both ["Thorax 1" "Abdomen 3"] and {'Thorax 1' 'Abdomen 3'} specify Thorax 1 and Abdomen 3 as the signals to read from a file.

Data Types: char | string

SelectedDataRecords — Indices of records to read

1:height(edfread(fileName)) (default) | vector of positive integers

Indices of records to read, specified as a vector of positive integers. The integers in the vector must be unique and strictly increasing.

• SelectedDataRecords must be a subset of the data records contained in the file. To see how many records are in the file, create an edfinfo object and use the NumDataRecords property. Alternatively, read the whole file and use the MATLAB function height.

• If this argument is not specified, edfread reads all the data records in the file.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

DataRecordOutputType — Data output type

"vector" (default) | "timetable"

Data output type, specified as either "vector" or "timetable".

• "vector" — Return the signals in data as vectors.

• "timetable" — Return the signals in data as timetables with row times corresponding to signal sample times.

Data Types: char | string

TimeOutputType — Time output type

"duration" (default) | "datetime"

Time output type, specified as either "duration" or "datetime".

• "duration" — Return the time information in data as duration arrays.

• "datetime" — Return the time information in data as datetime arrays.

Data Types: char | string

AnnotationsEncoding — Character encoding format to read annotations

"UTF-8" (default) | "latin1" | "US-ASCII"

Since R2026a

Character encoding format to use for reading annotations in the EDF or EDF+ file, specified as either "UTF-8", "latin1", or "US-ASCII".

• "UTF-8" — Unicode^® Transformation Format, 8-bit character encoding standard. For more information, see UTF-8.

• "latin1" — ISO^®/IEC 8859-1 character encoding standard, also known as Latin alphabet No. 1. For more information, see ISO/IEC 8859-1.

• "US-ASCII" — American Standard Code for Information Interchange character encoding standard. For more information, see ASCII.

Data Types: char | string

Output Arguments

data — Output data

timetable

Output data, returned as a timetable. Each row of data corresponds to a record, and each variable of data corresponds to a signal.

• If DataRecordOutputType is specified as "vector", the signal segment for each data record is returned as a vector.

• If DataRecordOutputType is specified as "timetable", the signal segment for each data record is returned as a timetable with row times corresponding to signal sample times.

Each row time of data contains the start time of the corresponding data record.

• If TimeOutputType is set to "duration", the start time of each record is relative to the start time of the file recording.

• If TimeOutputType is set to "datetime", the start time of each record is the absolute start time.

annotations — Record annotations

timetable

Record annotations, returned as a timetable. The timetable contains these variables:

• Onset — Time at which the annotation occurred. The data type of Onset depends on the value specified for TimeOutputType.

• Annotations — A string that contains the annotation text.

• Duration — A duration scalar that indicates the duration of the event described by the annotation. If the file does not specify an annotation duration, this variable is returned as NaN.

References

[1] Kemp, Bob, Alpo Värri, Agostinho C. Rosa, Kim D. Nielsen, and John Gade. “A Simple Format for Exchange of Digitized Polygraphic Recordings.” Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology 82, no. 5 (May 1992): 391–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/0013-4694(92)90009-7.

[2] Kemp, Bob, and Jesus Olivan. "European Data Format 'plus' (EDF+), an EDF Alike Standard Format for the Exchange of Physiological Data." Clinical Neurophysiology 114, no. 9 (2003): 1755–1761. https://doi.org/10.1016/S1388-2457(03)00123-8.

Version History

Introduced in R2020b

R2026a: Support for new character encoding formats

The edfread function supports reading annotations in any of these character encoding formats: UTF-8, ASCII, and Latin-1.