How to import specific columns from multiple text files into a single numeric array?

Hi,

I am extremely new to Matlab and have a question on how to import specific columns from multiple text files into a single numeric array. I have 5 text files all in a single directory. I would like to read in the second column of numbers from each of these 5 files into a single numeric array and export that array to a new text file with a new name. Is there a simple way to do this?

Thanks!

Answer 1

[David Hill]

newFile=[];
for k=1:5
    a=readmatrix(sprintf('yourFile%d.txt',k));%name files consistently with number at end
    newFile=[newFile;a(:,2)];
end
save('newFile.txt','newFile','-ascii');

[Marcella Roth]

Thank you so much for your help! This put the column 2 from each of the 5 files into a single column. Is there a way to put the column 2 from each of the 5 files into a separate column in the same file?