how to import a file from xls

Hello, I am having difficulties to import a file from xls. I provide you with a part of mw data as follows:

262  268,5035949  272,5741509
262  264,3953307  271,695265
276  275,7568674  282,2664962
265  265,689301  266,2047494
261  262,3786524  262,7157746
263  264,2770077  263,9411982
264  269,5544951  265,8121476
270  268,95849  266,3144101
265  265,1169026  263,5498798
274  264,7772694  269,8253276

The data is like 3 columns but when I import it, it makes it 5 columns. Basically, I converted the xls files to txt file but still the same problem. Can someone comment on how to solve this problem?

Thanks

Answer 1

[Star Strider]

One way of creating three columns from the five columns you imported:

data = randi(99, 10, 5);                                % Create Data
dstr = sprintf('%d\t%.0f.%.0f\t%.0f.%.0f\n', data');    % Create String From It
[D(:,1),D(:,2),D(:,3)] = strread(dstr);                 % Read As Numeric

The ‘D’ matrix is the output.