collect data from a text file without a uniform structure

 Hi everybody, I am making effort to solve this Problem with Matlab :

 I have a text (txt-file or a String) describing pats of a car with different parts like this:

    !type wheel,battery,glass,motor

    !part wheel-w1 
    !price 50 
    !weight 23
    !number 2
    !end part wheel-w1 

    !part wheel-w2 
    !price 60  
    !weight 23
    !number 2
    !end part wheel-w2 

    !part battery-b1 
    !price 200  
    !weight 15
    !number 1
    !end part battery-b1 

    !part glass-g1 
    !price 300  
    !weight 12
    !number 1
    !end part glass-g1 

    !part glass-g2 
    !price 200  
    !weight 5
    !number 4
    !end part glass-g2 

    !part motor-m1 
    !price 5000  
    !weight 50
    !number 1
    !guarantee 5
    !upgrade 1 
    !end part motor-m1

I want to collect all the specifications of every part by using the function "textscan" . But the textpart for the part "motor-m1" has two lines more than the others textparts.

You see, that the other parts do not have the lines:

    !guarantee
    !upgrade

and we can consider these specifications are 0 for the other parts. so what should I do to receive a result like this (the blanks can be filled with number 0) :

    partname     price W.     Nr.   G.    U. 
    wheel-w1     50    23     2    
    wheel-w2     60    23     2
    baterry-b1   200   15     1
    glass-g1     300   12     1
    glass-g2     200   5      4 
    motor-m1     5000  50     1     5     1

Thanks for your help in advance !

Answer 1

[Vivek Selvam]

Since the file is not uniform, you would need a loop to process line by line.

Following is a way you can try:

    filename    = 'txtFile.txt';
    fileID      = fopen(filename); 
    formatSpec  = '%s %s %s';                   % read in # cell columns
    data        = textscan(fileID,formatSpec); 
    fclose(fileID);
    i           = 2;
    partNum     = 0;
    for i = 1:numel(data{1,1})
        switch data{1,1}{i}
            case '!part'
                partNum                     = partNum + 1;
                part(partNum).name          = data{1,2}{i};
                part(partNum).price         = 0;
                part(partNum).weight        = 0;
                part(partNum).number        = 0;
                part(partNum).guarantee     = 0;
                part(partNum).upgrade       = 0;
            case '!price'
                part(partNum).price         = str2num(data{1,2}{i});
            case '!weight'
                part(partNum).weight        = str2num(data{1,2}{i});
            case '!number'
                part(partNum).number        = str2num(data{1,2}{i});
            case '!guarantee'
                part(partNum).guarantee     = str2num(data{1,2}{i});
            case '!upgrade'
                part(partNum).upgrade       = str2num(data{1,2}{i});
        end
    end
    openvar part