Reading a text file containing colon mark

I have a text file (a) contains words and numbers and colons. I would like to use the fscan and the fread function to get a time. However, the time is like this 2:30:20

I wonder, how can I do that such that there are cono(:) marks in between.

B=fread(a,time,'uint16');

I think the problem is in the uint16, but I don't know how to solve that.

Thanks in advance for your help

[Rik]

Have you read the documentation for fread?

Answer 1

[Krishna Anne]

Looks like you are getting the time as "Duration" class, Try one of these as required to fetch hours or seconds or minutes or milliseconds etc.

milliseconds(time) or

seconds(time) or

hours(time) or

minutes(time)

..........etc, provided time has class 'duration' you may check by typing class(time)

[Mohammed Qahosh]

Thanks for replying. But actually it didn't work.

I am trying also to use the {extractBetween} like in the documantation :

https://ww2.mathworks.cn/help/matlab/ref/extractbetween.html

but I got the following wrong message

The input character is not valid in MATLAB statements or expressions. which is this guy {"}

[Walter Roberson]

Which MATLAB release are you using? extractbetween() was added in R2016b, and ability to use " to delimit strings was added in R2017a.

[Mohammed Qahosh]

I am using R2013 release :(

[Walter Roberson]

I suggest you look at fileread() and regexp()

[Mohammed Qahosh]

In fact, I have dozens of pictures and each has its own time. ans the regexp can be used to get a well known character pattern which I don't know exactly. I think the best way is to get a new release so I can use easier functions specially the extractBetween function.

[Walter Roberson]

extractBetween is less flexibile than regexp is, so if there is a reason why you cannot use regexp then extractBetween will be even more difficult for you to get the information you need.

[Mohammed Qahosh]

The time I would like to find is sandwiched between the two words : Time , Height

So, I need to use the following :

A= (strfind(text,'Time') : strfind(text,'Height'))

So I don't have a direct expression to mention as an argument for the function regexp to search inside the string (text)

Any suggestions? Totally thankful

[Guillaume]

Your implementation of the text parsing is very fragile. I agree with Walter, regexp is the way to go. If you attach an example file to your question, we can work out a reliable way to parse your text header.

[Mohammed Qahosh]

In fact I am using a code from a previous master student. This is the code: I have thousands of pictures and I need to find the time of each of them. The time is between the words (Time,Height)

Here is the code, and below is the data in the one of the original pictures.

function [Parameters,Image]=OpenImage(name)
a=fopen(name);
text=fscanf(a,'%c',2048);

if (strcmp(name(end-2:end),'pco')==1)
    height=str2num(text(strfind(text,'Height =')+8:strfind(text,'Width')-1));
    width=str2num(text(strfind(text,'Width =')+7:strfind(text,'Binning')-1));
    exposure=str2num(text(strfind(text,'Exposure Time =')+16:strfind(text,'msec')-1));
    
end

if (strcmp(name(end-3:end),'SBIG')==1)
    height=str2num(text(strfind(text,'Height =')+8:strfind(text,'Width')-1));
    width=str2num(text(strfind(text,'Width =')+7:strfind(text,'Date')-1));
    exposure=str2num(text(strfind(text,'Each_exposure =')+16:strfind(text,'x 10millsec')-1))*10;
end

fseek(a,2048,'bof');
Image=fread(a,[width height],'uint16')';

Parameters=[height,width,exposure];

fclose(a);

Data :

PCO Pixelfly USB ImageFileName: D:\experiment\MoleculeExp\FEM\Video\v190322ae\v190322ae_0.pcoFile_version = 1Date = 22.3.2019Time = 15:26:42Height = 600Width = 800Binning = 1Exposure Time = 1000 msecAverage = 5Temperature = 45Pixel Rate = 12Tip Voltage = 2150Shutter State = 0End

[Rik]

This time I edited your comment for you. Next time, please use the tools explained on this page to make your question/comment more readable.

[Mohammed Qahosh]

Rik, Thank you very much for editting, and sorry for that.

[Guillaume]

You've already given us the code in your question. As I said, it's very fragile. What I asked for is an example file to be parsed

[Rik]

@Guillaume the data inside the file is at the bottom of his comment. It is unclear to me however if there really are no newline characters in that file, or if the were just omited when posting here.

@Mohammed Can just just attach the file? You will have to put it in a zip first if it is not an otherwise supported file format. Then we can read the file ourselves and help you write more robust code.

[Stephen23]

Mohammed Qahosh 's "Answer" moved here:

These are the data from a file. There would be 2 spaces seperating each line, if all lines were in one line. I got this form once I copied them and pasted in matlab.

PCO Pixelfly USB Image

FileName: D:\experiment\MoleculeExp\FEM\Video\v190322ae\v190322ae_0.pco

File_version = 1

Date = 22.3.2019

Time = 15:26:42

Height = 600

Width = 800

Binning = 1

Exposure Time = 1000 msec

Average = 5

Temperature = 45

Pixel Rate = 12

Tip Voltage = 2150

Shutter State = 0

End

[Rik]

Please attach the file itself, not a text copy. Use the paperclip icon to attach it to a comment.

[Mohammed Qahosh]

Dear Rik, thank you very much for your help, and sorry for my late response I was so busy.

Actually, I added the following code to the original one and it works :

A=regexp(text,'Time');
B=regexp(text,'Height');
L=B-A(1);

if L==16
    
    C=strfind(text,'Time');
    time_hour=str2num(text(C(1)+7:strfind(text,'Height')-8));
     time_min=str2num(text(C(1)+10:strfind(text,'Height')-5));
      time_hour=str2num(text(C(1)+13:strfind(text,'Height')-3));
      time=60*60*time_hour+60*time_min+time_sec;
end


% % I also changed the length L based on the time and it worked