title: Reading variables from big mat files
body: <p>We have MATLAB mat files whose size is around 12 GB each.</p>
  
  <p>These mat files are MATLAB tables. We only want to read some rows in the table, however we have to endure with loading times of about 10 minutes for a 12 GB mat file. Since we only want to read some rows in the file is it possible to do that without having to load it to MATLAB.</p>
  
  <p>The matfile command will load the full file into memory:</p>
  
  <pre><code>m=matfile('my_big_fat_file.mat')
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>thus taking the same time to lad as the load command itself.</p>
  
  <p>What, apparently matfile is good is to save individual variables rapidly in the my_big_fat-file using:</p>
  
  <pre><code>m = matfile('my_big_fat_file.mat','Writable',true);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My problem is loading the whole file to read only a couple of variables.</p>
  
  <p>On the other hand the MATLAB datastore command seems to be designed to handle data in csv or image format.</p>
  
  <p>many thanks</p>