Extracting numbers from a text file

Hi I am looking to extract the numbers 6249, 6249, 1.05785E+03, 6250, 1.05207E+03 from the following which is an excerpt from a text file:

         Element     S.Max. Prin
           Label          @Loc 1
---------------------------------
            *6249     1.05785E+03
            6250     1.05207E+03*

Minimum            1.05207E+03

      At Element            6250
  Maximum            1.05785E+03

      At Element            6249

I have written a code which successfully extracts the min and max and was trying to modify that code to extract the previously mentioned numbers but I am not getting the required results. The code I am currently using is:

fid = fopen('Results.txt','rt'); %open the file

   while isempty(findstr(line,'---------------------------------')),
     line=fgetl(fid); 
   end
   while isempty(findstr(line,'Minimum')),
       line=fgetl(fid);
       MinH1 = sscanf(line,' %f %f')
   end

any advice would be greatly appreciated

[Henry Giddens]

Hi

I think you have a few problems.

In the first two lines of results from the text file, there is a '*' in front of the number 6249 (and after the last one, although this is actually converted correctly with you code) which isn't taken into account in the sscanf line. The string '*6249' cant be converted to a number using:

 sscanf('*6249','%f')

You will need to take this into account when trying to convert the text to numbers. 'textscan' may be more useful for you.

Secondly, every time you loop through the while loop, the results in MinH1 are overwritten. I don't know if this is supposed to be intentional...

Finally, the sscanf function is executed on the 'Minimum' line , overwriting the results from the previous iteration. This is because you check the condition of the previous line before getting the new line.

[dpb]

Are the asterisks actually in the file or are they fignewtons of your posting to illustrate the area you were interested in parsing?

[Jacob Williams]

The asterisks were not in the file they were just to show the numbers I wanted, sorry I forgot to say that

Answer 1

[dpb]

Presuming the asterisks aren't actually in the file,

fid=fopen('Results.txt','rt'); %open the file
data=cell2mat(textscan(fid,'%2f',2,'headerlines',3,'collectoutput',1));

should do the trick

If they are there, you'll need to write explicit format string incorporating them as literals to skip them.

[Jacob Williams]

Thank you for the help, I managed to solve the problem myself using the following code:

   %HEATING1
 H1=[];
 while isempty(findstr(line,' Label          @Loc 1')),
   line=fgetl(fid);
 end
 line=fgetl(fid);
  while isempty(findstr(line,' ')),
   line=fgetl(fid);
    x = sscanf(line,' %f %f');
    H1=[H1,x];
  end

but I will also try using your solution as it looks much more efficient

[dpb]

You didn't answer the questions regarding the file format...