Import table with readtable if row is shifted in .txt file

Question

I have a table that looks like this

x x x x x x 
x x
y y y y y y
y y
z z z z z z 
z z 

I want to import it using readtable such that all the x are in one row, all the y in the next row, etc. In other words, in the .txt file the last two contents that are supposed to be in one line are shifted into the next. I think I need to change something in DelimitedTextImportOptions but I cannot figure out what exactly.

Would be glad if someone could help me with this, thank you very much in advance!

Answer 1

If it is a requirement to use readtable, one option would be to transform the original file to a new format and then apply readtable to the new file.

Here are sample contents of the file in.txt that can be used in the example below:

1 2 3 abc 5 6
7 8
3 4 5 def 7 8
9 0
9 1 0 ghi 3 2
1 4

Here is the code:

% FIRST, TRANSFORM THE INPUT FILE INTO A FILE WHERE THE SPLIT LINES ARE
% COMBINED INTO SINGLE LINES

% open input and output files
in = fopen('in.txt', 'r');
out = fopen('out.txt', 'w');

% read the first line of the input file
currline = fgetl(in);

% while we haven't reached the end of the file
while ~isequal(currline, -1)

    % read the following line of the input file
    currline_append = fgetl(in);
    % ... if it doesn't exist, throw an error; the file is not as expected
    if isequal(currline_append, -1)
        error('Bad file');
    end

    % print this pair of lines to the output file as a single line.
    % Note: if using Windows Notepad or similar application to read the
    % file, you may want to replace '\n' by '\r\n' in the format string
    fprintf(out, '%s %s\n', currline, currline_append);

    % get the next line of the input file
    currline = fgetl(in);
end

% close input and output files
fclose(in);
fclose(out);

% NEXT, READ THE TABLE FROM THE OUTPUT FILE

t = readtable('out.txt');