MATLAB Functions

Retrieve variables from disk

load
load filename
load (filename)
load filename.ext
load filename -ascii
load filename -mat

Description

The load and save commands retrieve and store MATLAB variables on disk.

load

by itself, loads all the variables saved in the file 'matlab.mat'.

load filename

retrieves the variables from 'filename.mat' given a full pathname or a MATLABPATH relative partial pathname .

load (filename)

loads a file whose name is stored in filename. The statements:

str = 'filename.mat'; load (str)

retrieve the variables from the binary file 'filename.mat'.

load filename.ext

reads ASCII files that contain rows of space separated values. The resulting data is placed into an variable with the same name as the file (without the extension). ASCII files may contain MATLAB comments (lines that begin with %).

load filename -ascii or load filename -mat

can be used to force load to treat the file as either an ASCII file or a MAT file.

Remarks

MAT-files are double-precision binary MATLAB format files created by the save command and readable by the load command. They can be created on one machine and later read by MATLAB on another machine with a different floating-point format, retaining as much accuracy and range as the disparate formats allow. They can also be manipulated by other programs, external to MATLAB.

Algorithm

The Application Program Interface Guide discusses the structure of MAT-files in detail. The Application Program Interface Libraries contain C and Fortran callable routines to read and write MAT-files from external programs.