From help-octave-request at che dot utexas dot edu  Tue Jan 31 15:02:38 1995
Subject: Re:: Reading binary data.
From: brannan at nosc dot mil (Randall M. Brannan)
To: help-octave at che dot utexas dot edu
Cc: Dutt dot Vinayak at mayo dot EDU, brannan@nosc.mil
Date: Tue, 31 Jan 95 13:01:59 PST

> Date: Tue, 31 Jan 95 13:47:17 CST
> From: vdp at us0 dot mayo dot EDU (Vinayak Dutt)
> Subject: Re: Reading binary data.
> To: help-octave at che dot utexas dot edu
> Sender: help-octave-request at che dot utexas dot edu
>                                                   
> # brannan writes:
> #I'm new to this list so please forgive me for asking a question which 
> #may have already been covered.  Can Octave read a binary data file?
> # .....................stuff deleted
>
> vinayak replies:
> 
>  i have used fopen() to open a binary file. fopen() should open any type of file,
> not just text file.
> 
> you would require octave version 1.1 to read binary files though (using fread()).
> 
> 
> 

  I'm using version 1.1.0.  I'm using the following 2 lines to read the 
data:
fid=fopen(data_name,'r');
[data_array,count]=fread(fid,[collumns,rows],'float');
  I've tried replacing 'r' with 'rb', 'b', and 'br'.  Octave never 
complains but, when it returns, count always equals zero and data_array
is always filled with NaN's.  This same file reads just fine when I
fopen it with MATLAB and fread it as 'float'.  Are there other arguments,
perhaps undocumented, I should be using with Octave?

                               R. Brannan