# Read text file julia: fscanf in Julia:
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/read-text-file-julia-fscanf-in-julia/23980
**Category:** New to Julia
**Tags:** question, matlab, io
**Created:** [May 7, 2019, 10:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/read-text-file-julia-fscanf-in-julia/23980 "2019-05-07T22:23:42Z")
**Posts on this page:** 6
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Aquaman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Aquaman)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2019, 10:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/read-text-file-julia-fscanf-in-julia/23980/1 "2019-05-07T22:23:42Z")
Hi everyone,
How can I read text file in the following way (matlab) in Julia?
or how can we use the similar function `A = fscanf(fileID` ,[`formatSpec`](https://de.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fscanf.html#bt_j35z-1-formatSpec),[`sizeA`](https://de.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/fscanf.html#bt_j35z-1-sizeA)) in Julia?
**Matlab**
```julia
global ttn;
ttn= fopen('test.txt','r');
%--- read the input data:
n1=fscanf(ttn,'%d',1);
n2=fscanf(ttn,'%d',1);
n3=fscanf(ttn,'%d',1);
n4=fscanf(ttn,'%d',1);
```
**test.txt:**
```julia
4000 3000 178 30
```
Output:
**n1=4000**
**n2=3000**
**n3=178**
**n4=30**
---
### Author:  [@KajWiik](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/KajWiik)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2019, 10:35pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/read-text-file-julia-fscanf-in-julia/23980/2 "2019-05-07T22:35:56Z")
See
[https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1.1/stdlib/DelimitedFiles/#Delimited-Files-1](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1.1/stdlib/DelimitedFiles/#Delimited-Files-1)
---
### Author:  [@Aquaman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Aquaman)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2019, 10:41pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/read-text-file-julia-fscanf-in-julia/23980/3 "2019-05-07T22:41:19Z")
Sure it is a method, namely: I can convert text to vect: **A** ; then n1=A[1], n2=A[2],… but not efficient for me
---
### Author:  [@KajWiik](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/KajWiik)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2019, 10:53pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/read-text-file-julia-fscanf-in-julia/23980/4 "2019-05-07T22:53:48Z")
```julia
(n1,n2,n3,n4) = readdlm("test.txt", Int)
```
Also [Strings · The Julia Language](https://docs.julialang.org/en/v1.1/manual/strings/#Regular-Expressions-1) is useful read.
---
### Author:  [@Aquaman](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/Aquaman)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2019, 10:58pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/read-text-file-julia-fscanf-in-julia/23980/5 "2019-05-07T22:58:38Z")
@KajWiik , thanks a lot!
If txt file is much more complex, how can we read namely:
**test.txt:**
```julia
4000 3000 178 30
1 2 3 4
3 4 5 6
1.0 2.0
3.0 1.0
3.0 4.0
4.0 5.0
1 2 3
4 5 6
4 5 6
```
_ **Output** _
**n1=4000**
**n2=3000**
**n3=178**
**n4=30**
**A:**
**1 2 3 4**
**3 4 5 6**
**B:** \>
> 1.0 2.0
> 3.0 1.0
> 3.0 4.0
> 4.0 5.0
**C**
**1 2 3**
**4 5 6**
**4 5 6**
---
### Author:  [@dpsanders](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/dpsanders)
#### Post date: [May 7, 2019, 11:34pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/read-text-file-julia-fscanf-in-julia/23980/6 "2019-05-07T23:34:38Z")
You follow the same method as described in the previous posts and process each line one at a time in a loop. Presumably the first numbers tell you how many lines of each type there are, so you write for loops with those lengths.