Relimiter for text files
This utility intelligently provides a new delimiter to a file while ignoring any instances of the delimiter that occur between double quotes (or other qualifiers).
It's often the case that a comma-delimited file will use commas both as delimiters and within text cells. In the latter case, the cell is usually surrounded by double quotes ("like this") or some other qualifier to indicate that the comma within is to be ignored as a delimiter.
MATLAB does not pay attention to this in functions like READTABLE and DATASET, to the annoyance of the end user.
This function provides one solution: it creates a temporary file that is delimited with a different delimiter (by default, '|') but otherwise identical. It correctly ignores the space between qualifiers. This can be called before READTABLE or DATASET, and the downstream code base is thus unaffected.
Optional arguments allow you to control the output file location, the new and old delimiters, and the text qualifier character. Attention has been paid to execution speed, but further suggestions for speedups are welcome.
Cite As
Michael Weidman (2025). Relimiter for text files (https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/49096-relimiter-for-text-files), MATLAB Central File Exchange. Retrieved .
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Version | Published | Release Notes | |
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1.0.0.0 |