How can I create variables in a loop assigning matrix values in a .dat file?

I have a series of .dat files (files_i, with i=1,...,6) consisting of an mxn matrix, and want to create vectors t_i such that the i-th vector takes the 1st column of the i-th file (t_1 = files_1(:,1), t_2 = files_2(:,1)), and so on.

I would like to do that in a loop, but can't find an efficient way to do so.

Any ideas? Thanks in advance

Answer 1

[KSSV]

You have to follow something like the below:

F = dir('*.dat');   % get all .dat files in folder 
nF = length(F) ;   % number of files 
iwant = zeros(m,nF) ;    % m is number of rows of the matrix in the .dat file
for i = 1:nF  % loop for each file 
   % load the file
   A = load(F(i).name) ;
   iwant(:,i) = A(:,1) ;   % where A is the matrix in the .dat file 
end

[Santiago Montouliu]

Thank you! I get the idea, but I still have some issues:

The A matrix has the same name as the .dat file, so each time I want to create the matrix, I have to do it by accessing the file's name.

Also, what happens if I don't know the number of rows of the matrix in the .dat file? (In this case I know it, but just curious...)

Thanks and sorry for the inconvenience

[KSSV]

Use: A = load(file) ; If you don't know the number of rows...load the first file, get the dimensions and run the loop for rest of the files.

[Santiago Montouliu]

That's great, thank you so much!