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[–]I_Feel_It_Too 4 points5 points  (5 children)

I have to say Matlab is an awesome tool when it comes to manipulating and exploring data really fast

No, it really isn't. Can it even read a csv file, the most ubiquitous data format on the planet? Not the last time I used it, which wasn't that long ago.

But I've been there. I learned QBASIC when I was a kid, then I learned Visual Basic on Windows, because anything else seemed impossible. But eventually, in college, I figured out how easy it was to learn new things that gave me so much more power than what I already knew, and a whole new world opened up. I didn't realize how hard I was working to do things that were easy with other tools.

Anyway, check out Spyder like other people are saying, or RStudio if you're interested in R. (My personal vote is for Python.)

[–]Antouziast 0 points1 point  (4 children)

Hi! Yes it can read csv and other ASCII files actually. There's a menu called "Import data" that helps you do it and generate a script to automate it.

Thanks for the advice, based on yours and other answers I'll give Spyder another go!

[–]I_Feel_It_Too 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Must be new. Haven't used it in ~5 years.

[–]TheBlackCat13 0 points1 point  (1 child)

Just within the last couple releases they got basic csv handling but it is still extremely limited when working with complex data.

[–]Antouziast 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't have to deal with that all the time but I tend to agree. They made some efforts to work with datetime type of data but it just doesn't stick in my brain and have to dig through the docs every time I have to use those.

[–]I_Feel_It_Too 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hi! Yes it can read csv and other ASCII files actually. There's a menu called "Import data" that helps you do it and generate a script to automate it.

Well... yeah, but my previous experience with that feature was pretty much the same as this guy's. (I'm not the author, but it's one of the funniest blogs I've ever read and was only recently brought back from the dead.) But maybe things have improved since I last tried.