Readtable ignoring first X rows

I am attempting to use readtable to import the attached file. There are 356 rows in the csv document but the first 55 are ignored, and readtable produces a table of 301x7. This is repeated on a number of similarly formatted csv files, with varying amounts of rows ignored.

I have been unable to identify why these rows have been ignored.

q_sectors = readtable('qualy_sectors.csv');

Warning: Column headers from the file were modified to make them valid MATLAB identifiers before creating variable names for the table. The original column headers are saved in the VariableDescriptions property.
Set 'VariableNamingRule' to 'preserve' to use the original column headers as table variable names.

Answer 1

[Voss]

You can specify 'NumHeaderLines',0 in your call to readtable:

q_sectors = readtable('qualy_sectors.csv','NumHeaderLines',0)

Warning: Column headers from the file were modified to make them valid MATLAB identifiers before creating variable names for the table. The original column headers are saved in the VariableDescriptions property.
Set 'VariableNamingRule' to 'preserve' to use the original column headers as table variable names.

q_sectors = 355×7 table
         P16G56PROJamesKELLETT                    Var2                Var3    RoslandGoldRacingByCenturyMotorsport    Var5    Var6    data
    _______________________________    ___________________________    ____    ____________________________________    ____    ____    ____

    {'IDEAL LAP TIME :  46.521'   }    {'BEST LAP TIME :  46.521'}    NaN           {'DIFFERENCE :  0.000'}           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'LAP SECTOR 1'               }    {'SECTOR 2'               }    NaN           {'LAP TIME MPH'       }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'1 - OUTLAP 85.4'            }    {'23.720 86.4'            }    NaN           {'1:10.768 61.44'     }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'2 - 35.975 88.0'            }    {'23.542 68.9'            }    NaN           {'59.517 73.06'       }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'3 - 35.050 77.1'            }    {'22.340 134.4'           }    NaN           {'57.390 75.77'       }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'4 - 28.016 112.9'           }    {'18.767 135.0'           }    NaN           {'46.783 (3) 92.95'   }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'5 - 27.868 112.9'           }    {'18.794 135.0'           }    NaN           {'46.662 (2) 93.19'   }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'6 - 27.789 112.9'           }    {'18.732 135.2'           }    NaN           {'46.521 (1) 93.47'   }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'P2 21 G56 PRO Josh RATTICAN'}    {0×0 char                 }    NaN           {'Elite Motorsport'   }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'IDEAL LAP TIME :  46.881'   }    {'BEST LAP TIME :  46.881'}    NaN           {'DIFFERENCE :  0.000'}           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'LAP SECTOR 1'               }    {'SECTOR 2'               }    NaN           {'LAP TIME MPH'       }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'1 - OUTLAP 85.0'            }    {'24.364 87.8'            }    NaN           {'1:05.409 66.48'     }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'2 - 36.457 69.6'            }    {'22.528 98.2'            }    NaN           {'58.985 73.72'       }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'3 - 36.315 75.6'            }    {'23.482 98.8'            }    NaN           {'59.797 72.72'       }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'4 - 33.817 97.2'            }    {'IN PIT'                 }    NaN           {'3:17.839 P 21.98'   }           NaN     NaN     NaN 
    {'5 - OUTLAP 86.5'            }    {'19.750 134.2'           }    NaN           {'55.067 78.96'       }           NaN     NaN     NaN 

Now the table has the right number of rows.

[Matt Smith]

This worked perfectly, thank you very much.

Do you know the rationale as to why readtable is detecting that amount of rows as a header?

[Voss]

You're welcome!

I'm not sure why readtable detected so many rows as header rows.