# An example of reading a text file **URL:** \ **Category:** Data handling\ **Created:** [June 5, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://scilab.discourse.group/t/an-example-of-reading-a-text-file/540 "2024-06-05T17:55:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Pascal77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Pascal77](https://scilab.discourse.group/u/Pascal77)\ **Post date:** [June 5, 2024, 5:55pm UTC](https://scilab.discourse.group/t/an-example-of-reading-a-text-file/540/1 "2024-06-05T17:55:18Z")
The code is very simple. Read instruction is use according to the SCILAb help. The text file has 2 columns of 31 real numbers. It could be the (x,y) values of a dedicated math function: ```auto 0 2.718281828 1 1.648721271 2 1.395612425 3 1.284025417 4 1.221402758 5 1.181360413 6 1.153564995 7 1.133148453 8 1.117519069 9 1.105170918 10 1.09516944 11 1.08690405 12 1.079958999 13 1.074041431 14 1.068939106 15 1.064494459 16 1.060588062 17 1.057127745 18 1.054041243 19 1.051271096 20 1.048771047 21 1.046503435 22 1.044437289 23 1.042546905 24 1.040810774 25 1.039210758 26 1.037731455 27 1.036359701 28 1.035084182 29 1.033895114 30 1.032783996 ``` The SCI file is the following one: ```auto // Reading the txt file--------------------------------------------------------- y=read("C:\...path...\Essai_scilab.txt",31,2) //31 = number of rows //2 = number of columns //Ploting the results----------------------------------------------------------- clf; plot(y(:,1),y(:,2),'thickness',2); xgrid(2,1,8); xlabel('1st column data');xlabel color blue fontsize 3;//Define x axis ylabel('2nd column data');ylabel color blue fontsize 3;//Define y axis title("Reading a text file");title color peru background grey90 fontsize 5; gcf().background=color('gray');//Set the background color of the figure gca().background=color('gray85');//Set the background color of the plotting area // colors names are coming from Color_list in SCILAB help browser ``` The result is given below: ![Reading a txt file with read instruction](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/free1/uploads/utc/original/1X/50d2e5af8c442424a4b6c62cc7ebf69fed025295.png) ---
**Author:** ![QwillDune](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/scilab.discourse.group/qwilldune/32/152_2.png) [@QwillDune](https://scilab.discourse.group/u/QwillDune)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 1:09pm UTC](https://scilab.discourse.group/t/an-example-of-reading-a-text-file/540/2 "2024-06-06T13:09:20Z")
Hi Pascal77, You can also try “fscanfMat” y=fscanfMat(“C:.…path…\Essai\_scilab.txt”) Why? no need to know the size of the matrix to upload BR François ---
**Author:** ![Pascal77](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a9a28c/32.png) [@Pascal77](https://scilab.discourse.group/u/Pascal77)\ **Post date:** [June 6, 2024, 1:57pm UTC](https://scilab.discourse.group/t/an-example-of-reading-a-text-file/540/3 "2024-06-06T13:57:38Z")
Hello, thank you for the tip. I will try it… ---
**Author:** ![mario](https://yyz2.discourse-cdn.com/free1/user_avatar/scilab.discourse.group/mario/32/396_2.png) [@mario](https://scilab.discourse.group/u/mario)\ **Post date:** [June 10, 2024, 7:12am UTC](https://scilab.discourse.group/t/an-example-of-reading-a-text-file/540/4 "2024-06-10T07:12:07Z")
I usually use fscanfMat, but it is interesting to know this alternative. Probably, the format options of read may add some useful features.