textscan delimiter = "abc" does not work

Question

I am trying to read a text file that has textual data and separated by delimiter say 'abc' as consecutive characters separating the string that I want to read.

Ex: say text.txt file, as follows:

John abc Mike abc Micheal

Sandra abc Sarah abc David

I tried the following code but it did not work because delimiter is NOT a single character:

user = textscan(fid, '%s%s%s','Delimiter','abc');

Any help is highly appreciated

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 16 '14 at 06:49

1

Use a regular expression:

user = regexp(str, 'abc', 'split')

where str is a (cell)string read with something like:

str = textscan(fid, '%s','Delimiter','\n')

answered Apr 16 '14 at 06:49

Rody Oldenhuis

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Throws this error - `All cells must be strings.`. Instead if you use `str = importdata(filename)` works. – Divakar Apr 16 '14 at 09:44
Thanks Rody. I spent 1 day tweeking and tweeking codes until your answer came... thanks again. – Zahran Apr 16 '14 at 18:54
Thanks Divakar. I consolidate your add with my code and it works. – Zahran Apr 17 '14 at 16:33

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 16 '14 at 06:49

0

I think this should do the trick:

user = textscan(fid, '%s%s%s', 'delimiter', {'abc'});

answered Apr 16 '14 at 06:49

Marcin

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Ah ok. I use R2013a. It works there. Don't know solution for 2010b. – Marcin Apr 16 '14 at 07:05
Thanks Marcin. This exactly what I have done and the problem was persist. Thanks again. – Zahran Apr 16 '14 at 18:55

textscan delimiter = "abc" does not work

2 Answers2