save and read a string matrix in a .txt file

hi,

i have problems with saving and reading a string matrix in a .txt file. My idea was to save username and password to be able to have the same accounts when the program is interrupted, i tried with readmatrix/writematrix, but read matrix doesn't work. I also have other file in my program with numbers and with the same system read/write matrix they work. I also tried using importdata but i can't get it work. I would really appriciate any help if it's possible, thanks you!

[Mann Baidi]

Hi,

It would be great if you can share your text file.

Answer 1

[Avni Agrawal]

Hi Marco,

i understand that you are trying to save and read a string matrix in a .txt file. If you have a text file containing a matrix of strings (usernames and passwords), and you want to read this matrix into MATLAB, you can use the `textscan` function for a high degree of flexibility, or `readtable` for a more straightforward approach.

Below are examples for both methods.

Assuming you have a text file named `stringMatrix.txt` with the following content:

user1,pass1

user2,pass2

user3,pass3

1. Using `textscan`

% Open the file for reading
fileID = fopen('stringMatrix.txt', 'r');

% Read the data, assuming comma-separated values
data = textscan(fileID, '%s%s', 'Delimiter', ',');

% Close the file
fclose(fileID);

% Extract the columns to separate cell arrays
usernames = data{1};
passwords = data{2};

% Display the read data
disp(usernames);

    {'user1'}
    {'user2'}
    {'user3'}

disp(passwords);

    {'pass1'}
    {'pass2'}
    {'pass3'}

This approach reads the strings into cell arrays, where `usernames` and `passwords` will each be a cell array containing the respective column from the file.

2. Using `readtable`

% Read the file into a table, assuming comma-separated values
T = readtable('stringMatrix.txt', 'Format', '%s%s', 'ReadVariableNames', false);

% Convert table columns to cell arrays (if needed)
usernames = table2cell(T(:, 1));
passwords = table2cell(T(:, 2));

% Display the read data
disp(usernames);
disp(passwords);

This method reads the data into a table and then converts the relevant columns into cell arrays. If working directly with a table is suitable for your application, you can skip the conversion to cell arrays and access the data using `T.Var1` and `T.Var2`, or assign variable names during the `readtable` call to access them by these names.

Both methods allow you to read a matrix of strings from a text file into MATLAB, and the choice between them can depend on your specific needs and the complexity of the data structure you're working with.

I hope this helps.

[marco]

thank you!!