Read matrix of string

Question

I need to read a text file like this (columns can be 6,9,12, etc..):

R,R,S,S,T,T
R,R,S,T,S,T
R,R,S,T,T,S
R,R,T,S,S,T
R,R,T,S,T,S
R,R,T,T,S,S
R,S,R,S,T,T
R,S,R,T,S,T
R,S,R,T,T,S
R,S,S,R,T,T
R,S,S,T,R,T

and put data in a matrix of string (without commas).

I've tried with mat=dlmread(file_name), but I think that it only works with numbers.

I've also tried this:

mat=fileread(filename);
mat(mat==',') = ''

but the output is strange, mat is 1 By 72

====EDIT====

example of output (matrix 11By6):

RRSSTT
RRSTST
RRSTTS
RRTSST
RRTSTS
RRTTSS
RSRSTT
RSRTST
RSRTTS
RSSRTT
RSSTRT

Answer 1

I feel like a rep whore, but here is one of the many possible solutions.

Assuming your file is named test.csv -

fileID = fopen('test.csv');
C = textscan(fileID,'%s %s %s %s %s %s' ,'Delimiter',',');

====EDIT====

if you don't want to write %s 6 times - do:

formatSpec = '%s';
N = 6;
C = textscan(fileID, repmat('%s', [1 N]),'Delimiter',',');

Again, this is just one of the many * many ways to do it.

This will generate a cell structure of 1 x 6, where each of the 6 cells represent a column of your String. You can now index it using curly brackets:

>> C{1}
>>ans = 

'R'
'R'
'R'
'R'
'R'
'R'
'R'
'R'
'R'
'R'
'R'

If you want a full cell structure where there is only 1 Char in each cell, you just have to do:

 V = horzcat(C{:}); %// size of V is 11x6

V = 

'R'    'R'    'S'    'S'    'T'    'T'
'R'    'R'    'S'    'T'    'S'    'T'
'R'    'R'    'S'    'T'    'T'    'S'
'R'    'R'    'T'    'S'    'S'    'T'
'R'    'R'    'T'    'S'    'T'    'S'
'R'    'R'    'T'    'T'    'S'    'S'
'R'    'S'    'R'    'S'    'T'    'T'
'R'    'S'    'R'    'T'    'S'    'T'
'R'    'S'    'R'    'T'    'T'    'S'
'R'    'S'    'S'    'R'    'T'    'T'
'R'    'S'    'S'    'T'    'R'    'T'

=====SECOND EDIT=====

To convert to Char Array: Use Char

 T  = reshape(char(V(:)),size(V)) %// size of T is now 11*6 Char

>> T =
RRSSTT
RRSTST
RRSTTS
RRTSST
.
.