title: Import CSV file with mixed data types
body: <p>I'm working with MATLAB for few days and I'm having difficulties to import a CSV-file to a matrix.</p>
  
  <p>My problem is that my CSV-file contains almost only Strings and some integer values, so that <code>csvread()</code> doesn't work. <code>csvread()</code> only gets along with integer values.</p>
  
  <p>How can I store my strings in some kind of a 2-dimensional array to have free access to each element?</p>
  
  <p>Here's a sample CSV for my needs:</p>
  
  <pre class="lang-none prettyprint-override"><code>04;abc;def;ghj;klm;;;;;
  ;;;;;Test;text;0xFF;;
  ;;;;;asdfhsdf;dsafdsag;0x0F0F;;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>The main thing are the empty cells and the texts within the cells.
  As you see, the structure may vary.</p>