very basic matlab question about .dat file

I'm doing an assignment for a programming class I'm in, and it is asking me to write a .dat file measuring two variables (i.e. wind speed & visibility) over a 24 hr period. I assumed it would require a matrix to do this, but I am having trouble creating the matrix to measure two variables. It's probably a very simple answer but I've been trying to figure it out for a while. Please let me know if you have any tips on this

Answer 1

[Matt Tearle]

The statement of the problem seems ill-formed to me. How are these variables being "measured"? I could see reading in from a file of measurements. I could see calculating two variables from something else then writing out to a file. But I'm confused by the question as stated.

General thoughts: typically the two variables would be vectors (one element per measurement). You can concatenate vectors together into a matrix using array concatenation: [a,b]. You can write matrix data out to a file using sprintf.

Answer 2

[Tim]

Hi Arielle,

Are you reading from a file? If so you can use the import wizard found under the file menu. Or you can use dlmread

wind = dlmread('windData.dat')

type help dlmread for further examples. You might need to add more depending on how your data is delimited.

Tim