Development Environment

Using the diary Command to Export Data

To export small numeric arrays or cell arrays, you can use the diary command. diary creates a verbatim copy of your MATLAB session in a disk file (excluding graphics).

For example, if you have the array, A, in your workspace

A = [ 1 2 3 4; 5 6 7 8 ];

execute these commands at the MATLAB prompt to export this array using diary:

1. Turn on the diary function. You can optionally name the output file diary creates.

diary my_data.out

2. Display the contents of the array you want to export. This example displays the array A. You could also display a cell array or other MATLAB data type.

A =
    1     2     3     4
    5     6     7     8

3. Turn off the diary function.

diary off

diary creates the file, my_data.out, and records all the commands executed in the MATLAB session until it is turned off.

A =

     1     2     3     4
     5     6     7     8

diary off

4. Open the diary file, my_data.out, in a text editor and remove all the extraneous text.

Exporting Delimited ASCII Data Files

Importing Binary Data