How To Import Data from .CSV File With Numeric Values and Texts Into MATLAB Workspace?

A .csv file is a comma-separated file, in which consecutive data columns are separated by commas and the end of a line is the default EOL character. While dealing with small data, it is common to use a .csv file for storing it. In this article, we shall discuss how to import .csv files, with numeric data and their text headers as the column variables, into a MATLAB workspace.

Read tables in MATLAB

We can use the simple readable command to import the data from a .csv file as a table with column variables (headers). The readable command default detects the file type and makes the first row the column variables if it is in text form. 

Syntax

tab = readtable("file_name.extension")

See the following example to understand the same.

Example 1:

%MATLAB Code
tab = readtable("data.csv");
disp(tab.Properties.VariableNames)

In this example, we import a .csv file with numeric data and display its variable names (headers). The following .csv file is used.

Now, the above code will give us the following output:

Further, this data can be manipulated as per the user's requirements.

Import data in MATLAB

There is another way to the importing a .csv file with numeric data and text headers. The import data function of MATLAB allows performing the same functionality as the readable function however, the former creates a struct while the latter creates a table.

Syntax

tab = importdata(filename)

See the following example to understand the same.

Example 2:

%MATLAB Code
tab = importdata("data.csv");

%displaying data
fprintf("Data\n")
disp(tab.data)

%displaying column headers
fprintf("Column headers\n")
disp(tab.colheaders)

This code will import the data as a struct with three fields:

• data
• textdata
• colheaders

Now, we can access these fields by struct methods. See below the output of the previous code.