Mat File Versions

Starting with mat file version 4 there are several subsequent versions of mat files that support an increasing set of features.

Mat file versions.

Matlab releases r2006b and later all support all mat file versions. By default all save operations create version 7 mat files. Moreover the maximum variable size supported by the mat version 5 file format is 2 31 bytes 6. But this is no longer supported.

While continuing to use the same general structure new format versions have been introduced to support new capabilities. Hdf5 based mat file support matlab 7 4 r2007a 17 1 5 0 07 2007 march 1 2007 new bsxfun function to apply element by element binary operation with singleton expansion enabled. The only exception to this is when you create new mat files using the matfile function. Matlab 7 5 r2007b 18 1 6 0 september 1 2007 last release for windows 2000 and powerpc mac.

One distinction is by level level 4 and level 5 files have completely different technical structures. License server support for windows vista. For example data compression and unicode support. Apparently there was a nocompression flag that worked in previous versions of save.

The only exception to this is when you create new mat files using the matfile function. By default all save operations create version 7 mat files. Unfortunately v7 3 appears to have some form of compression algorithm embedded saving and loading these v7 3 mat files istaking significant time. The mathworks matlab program uses mat files too but as a container for holding data like functions and variables.

Starting with mat file version 4 there are several subsequent versions of mat files that support an increasing set of features. The naming of the mat file format versions is somewhat confusing. A file with the mat file extension is most likely a microsoft access table shortcut file that s used to quickly open a table without having to first open the ms access program. Currently only the uncompressed mat version 5 file format 6 is supported that is compressed mat files cannot be written only read.

Matlab releases r2006b and later all support all mat file versions.