Entering data into MATLAB from a csv file containing both data and letters

I'm trying to load into MATLAB the following using textscan:
DATE  PG Index  Wind Speed (knots)  Direction  Marrowbone (Hourly Wind Speed)  Marrowbone (Hourly Wind Direction)  Pius (Hourly Wind Speed)  Pius (Hourly Wind Direction)
27/11/2010 00:00  E  9  310  0  0  0  0
27/11/2010 01:00  D  8  310  0  0  1.4974  127.62
27/11/2010 02:00  D  9  310  0  0  2.4882  255.84
27/11/2010 03:00  D  9  310  0  0  2.0637  271.87
27/11/2010 04:00  D  11  310  0  0  2.5605  294.59
I always have problems loading this type of data!
I'd ultimately like to count the number of 'D'  values over 24 hours and if it's less than a specific value to delet the day. Any suggestions?

Answer 1

[Geoff]

textscan(currentLine, '%s%s%c%d%d%d%d%f%f')

Answer 2

[per isakson]

I copy&paste your data to ascii_with_colhead_date_time.txt and tried importdata

>> A =  importdata( 'ascii_with_colhead_date_time.txt')
A = 
        data: [5x6 double]
    textdata: {6x8 cell}
>> A.data
ans =
    9.0000  310.0000         0         0         0         0
    8.0000  310.0000         0         0    1.4974  127.6200
    9.0000  310.0000         0         0    2.4882  255.8400
    9.0000  310.0000         0         0    2.0637  271.8700
   11.0000  310.0000         0         0    2.5605  294.5900
>> A.textdata
ans = 
Columns 1 through 5
  'DATE'                'PG Index'    'Wind Speed (knots)'    
  '27/11/2010 00:00'    'E'           ''                      
  '27/11/2010 01:00'    'D'           ''                      
  '27/11/2010 02:00'    'D'           ''                      
  '27/11/2010 03:00'    'D'           ''                      
  '27/11/2010 04:00'    'D'           ''

A.textdata is truncated to avoid wordwrap