How to Import Data from a CSV File with Numeric Values and Texts into MATLAB Workspace?

CSV or Comma Separated Values is a file format that can store numeric and text values. The most important characteristic of a CSV file is that it allows to exchange the data among a variety of sources.

MATLAB is a powerful tool that provides a large number of built-in functions to perform various operations. It provides the following two functions that enable the users to import data with numeric and text values from a CSV file into the MATLAB workspace.

• readtable()

• importdata()

In this tutorial, I will show you the process of importing data from a CSV file into the MATLAB workspace using these functions.

Import Data Using the Readtable() Function

In MATLAB, the "readtable" function is a built-in function in its function library. This function is used to import data with text and numeric values into the MATLAB workspace.

Syntax

 data = readtable(file_path); 

The step-by-step process of importing data with numeric values and text from a CSV file into MATLAB workspace is explained below.

• Step (1) Read the CSV file and store in a variable.

• Step (2) Specify the variable names.

• Step (3) Call the "readtable" function to import data from CSV file.

• Step (4) Display the imported data.

We can follow these simple four steps to import data from a CSV file into the MATLAB workspace.

Example

Let us take an example to understand the implementation of these steps in MATLAB programming.

 % MATLAB code to create a sample CSV file % Create a sample table with numeric and text data course_data = table([101; 102; 103; 104; 105; 106; 107;], {'Math'; 'Physics'; 'Chemistry'; 'MATLAB'; 'Electronics'; 'C++'; 'Java';}, [1000; 1500; 1200; 1500; 450; 700; 600], 'VariableNames', {'CourseID', 'CourseName', 'Fee'}); % Specify the name for the CSV file file_name = 'course_data.csv'; % Write the table to the CSV file writetable(course_data, file_name); % Display the confirmation message and table disp('The CSV file has been created successfully.'); disp(course_data); 

Output

It will create a CSV file with the following data

 The CSV file has been created successfully. CourseID  CourseName  Fee  ________  _______________  ____ 101 {'Math' } 1000 102 {'Physics' } 1500 103 {'Chemistry' } 1200 104 {'MATLAB' } 1500 105 {'Electronics'} 450 106 {'C++' } 700 107 {'Java' } 600 

Now, let us implement the code to import the numeric values and text data from this CSV file into the workspace.

Example

 % Import data from CSV file into workspace using readtable function % Specify the file path to the CSV file file_path = '/MATLAB Drive/course_data.csv';	% Replace with your CSV file path % Call the readtable function to import data from the CSV file data = readtable(file_path); % Display the imported data disp('This CSV file contains the following data.'); disp(data); 

Output

When you run this code, it will produce the following output

 This CSV file contains the following data. CourseID  CourseName  Fee  ________  _______________  ____ 101 {'Math' } 1000 102 {'Physics' } 1500 103 {'Chemistry' } 1200 104 {'MATLAB' } 1500 105 {'Electronics'} 450 106 {'C++' } 700 107 {'Java' } 600 

This example shows how we can use the "readtable" function to import data from a CSV file into MATLAB workspace.

Let us see another method of importing data with numeric values and text from a CSV file into MATLAB workspace.

Import Data Using the Importdata() Function

In MATLAB, the "importdata" function is another built-in function in MATLAB function library. This can be used to import numeric values and text data from a CSV file into the MATLAB workspace.

Syntax

 data = importdata(file_path, delimiter); 

The steps involved in importing the numeric values and text data from a CSV file into the workspace using the "importdata" function are explained below.

• Step (1) Read the CSV file and store in a variable.

• Step (2) Call the "importdata" function to access the data in the CSV file.

• Step (3) Read and display the column heaters.

• Step (4) Read and display the text data in the CSV file.

• Step (5) Read and display the numeric data in the CSV file.

Example

Let us see an example to implement these steps in MATLAB programming.

 % Import data from CSV file into workspace using importdata function % Specify the file path to the CSV file file_path = '/MATLAB Drive/course_data.csv'; % Replace with your CSV file path % Call the importdata function to read the CSV file data = importdata(file_path); % Read and display the text data text_data = data.textdata; disp('Text Data:'); disp(text_data); % Read and display the numeric data numeric_data = data.data; disp('Numeric Data:'); disp(numeric_data); 

Output

When you run this code, it will produce the following output

 Text Data: {'CourseID'} {'CourseName' } {'Fee' } Numeric Data: {'101' } {'Math' } {0×0 char} 1000 {'102' } {'Physics' } {0×0 char} 1500 {'103' } {'Chemistry' } {0×0 char} 1200 {'104' } {'MATLAB' } {0×0 char} 1500 {'105' } {'Electronics'} {0×0 char} 450 {'106' } {'C++' } {0×0 char} 700 {'107' } {'Java' } {0×0 char} 600 

In this example, I demonstrated the use of the "importdata" function to import numeric values and text data from a CSV file into the MATLAB workspace.

Conclusion

In conclusion, importing data with numeric values and text from a CSV file into the workspace is one of the basic and crucial operation in MATLAB. CSV files are used to store data comma-separated values.

In this tutorial, I explained the step-by-step process of importing numeric and text data from a CSV file into workspace using two built-in functions in MATLAB. These functions are "readtable" and "importdata". You can try these MATLAB codes with different CSV files by replacing the file path.