xyzread documentation

The xyzread function simply imports the x,y,z columns of a .xyz file. Note: there is no real standard for .xyz files, so your .xyz file may be different from the .xyz files I wrote this for. I wrote this one for GMT/GIS files. See also xyz2grid.

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Contents

Syntax

[x,y,z] = xyzread(filename) [x,y,z] = xyzread(filename,Name,Value)

Description

[x,y,z] = xyzread(filename) imports the columns of a plain .xyz file.

[x,y,z] = xyzread(filename,Name,Value) accepts any textscan arguments such as 'headerlines' etc.

Example

For this example, use load Antarctic Curie depth data from Martos 2017:

[x,y,z] = xyzread('Curie_Depth.xyz');

The syntax above is equivalent to

[x,y,z] = xyzread('Curie_Depth.xyz','headerlines',0);

because this particular xyz file does not have any header lines.

We have now loaded the data into Matlab and it looks like this:

whos
  Name          Size             Bytes  Class     Attributes

  x         59328x1             474624  double              
  y         59328x1             474624  double              
  z         59328x1             474624  double              

We have three variables, each 59328x1 in size. Here are the x,y coordinates plotted as dots:

plot(x,y,'.')

At this zoom level, that looks like a solid continent, but only because the ~60,000 dots are all squished together. Zoom in closer to see the regularity of the grid:

axis([-2 -0.5 -1.3 .2]*1e6)

Those dots are regularly spaced in x and y, but getting them into a regular grid in Matlab is kind of a noodle scratcher. Fortunately, xyz2grid makes it easy!

[X,Y,Z] = xyz2grid(x,y,z);

whos X Y Z
  Name        Size              Bytes  Class     Attributes

  X         291x350            814800  double              
  Y         291x350            814800  double              
  Z         291x350            814800  double              

Now those 59328x1 arrays have been neatly packed into 291x350 grids which can be plotted with pcolor:

pcolor(X,Y,Z)
shading flat

Author Info

This function is part of the Climate Data Toolbox for Matlab. The function and supporting documentation were written by Chad A. Greene of the University of Texas at Austin.