MATLAB file I/O (loadmat, savemat) in SciPy - Mini Project: Build & Apply

MATLAB File I/O with loadmat and savemat

📖 Scenario: You have some data from a small experiment saved in Python. You want to save this data to a MATLAB file so your friend who uses MATLAB can open it. Later, you want to load the data back from the MATLAB file to check it.

🎯 Goal: Learn how to save data to a MATLAB .mat file using savemat and load data from a MATLAB .mat file using loadmat in Python.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a Python dictionary with experiment data

Set a filename string for the MATLAB file

Save the dictionary to a MATLAB file using savemat

Load the data back from the MATLAB file using loadmat

Print the loaded data to verify it matches the original

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Scientists and engineers often share data between Python and MATLAB. Saving data in MATLAB format allows easy collaboration.

💼 Career

Data scientists and engineers working in mixed software environments need to exchange data files. Knowing how to read and write MATLAB files in Python is a useful skill.

1

Create the experiment data dictionary

Create a dictionary called experiment_data with these exact entries: 'temperature': [22, 23, 21, 20], 'humidity': [30, 35, 33, 31], and 'pressure': [1012, 1013, 1011, 1010].

SciPy

# Create the experiment_data dictionary with temperature, humidity, and pressure lists
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use curly braces {} to create a dictionary. Each key is a string and each value is a list of numbers.

2

Set the MATLAB filename

Create a string variable called mat_file and set it to 'experiment.mat'.

SciPy

experiment_data = {
    'temperature': [22, 23, 21, 20],
    'humidity': [30, 35, 33, 31],
    'pressure': [1012, 1013, 1011, 1010]
}
# Create the mat_file string with the filename 'experiment.mat'
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use quotes to create a string and assign it to mat_file.

3

Save the data to the MATLAB file

Import savemat from scipy.io. Then use savemat to save experiment_data to the file named mat_file.

SciPy

experiment_data = {
    'temperature': [22, 23, 21, 20],
    'humidity': [30, 35, 33, 31],
    'pressure': [1012, 1013, 1011, 1010]
}
mat_file = 'experiment.mat'
# Import savemat from scipy.io
# Use savemat to save experiment_data to mat_file
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use from scipy.io import savemat to import. Then call savemat(filename, data).

4

Load and print the data from the MATLAB file

Import loadmat from scipy.io. Load the data from mat_file into a variable called loaded_data. Then print loaded_data.

SciPy

from scipy.io import savemat

experiment_data = {
    'temperature': [22, 23, 21, 20],
    'humidity': [30, 35, 33, 31],
    'pressure': [1012, 1013, 1011, 1010]
}
mat_file = 'experiment.mat'

savemat(mat_file, experiment_data)
# Import loadmat from scipy.io
# Load data from mat_file into loaded_data
# Print loaded_data
# Your code here

Need a hint?

Use from scipy.io import loadmat. Then call loadmat(filename) and print the result.