Column names in data sheet

Hi

I have created this data sheet I would like load into matlab. If I leave the data sheet as merely numbers it imports fine using the "load" command. But what if I want to organize the data sheet a bit, and insert column names? I have tried enclosing the column headers/names in quotes, but "load" just complains about unrecognized text. The command "importdata" however terminates without complaint but produces the following output

>> test=importdata('data.txt')  
test = 

          data: [25x4 double]
      textdata: {'a '  'b '  'c'  'd'}
    colheaders: {'a '  'b '  'c'  'd'}if true

Here my data set contains 25 x 4 numeric values, and at the top I have written the column names: a b c d. But how do I then get to the data? I have tried

test(a)  'complains that it does not recognize a
test('a') 'complains that the Index exceeds matrix dimensions
test(:,'a') 'complains that the Index exceeds matrix dimensions
test('a',:) 'complains that the Index exceeds matrix dimensions

All help is greatly appreciated, thanks :-)

have a good day

Answer 1

[Vishal Rane]

In your case test is a structure with three fields data, textdata and colheaders. Then again whether it is a matrix, struct or a cell array depends on the source of data.

To access data , use

test.data            % all data
test.data(:,1)       % first column
test.data(1,:)       % first row

refer this importdata output