# Unpacking data

**URL:** <https://mworks.discourse.group/t/unpacking-data/719>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [August 3, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/unpacking-data/719 "2010-08-03T23:00:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![cstawarz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/mworks.discourse.group/cstawarz/32/3_2.png) [@cstawarz](https://mworks.discourse.group/u/cstawarz)\
**Post date:** [August 3, 2010, 11:00pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/unpacking-data/719/1 "2010-08-03T23:00:18Z")

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Hi Chris,

Can you please outline the current recommended procedures for importing/unpacking \*.mwk files in Matlab for offline analysis? I’m interested in browsing all the events in a data file as well as grabbing specific events.

Thanks,

Nicole

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**Author:** ![cstawarz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/mworks.discourse.group/cstawarz/32/3_2.png) [@cstawarz](https://mworks.discourse.group/u/cstawarz)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/unpacking-data/719/2 "2010-08-04T16:19:14Z")

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Hi Nicole,

I’ve attached a MATLAB function (`printEvents`) that demonstrates how to unpack a data file. It takes the name of the file and an event name (e.g. a variable name or a system event like `#announceStimulus`) and prints out all matching events. If you omit the event name, it prints out all events.

Note that when you open a data file for the first time, it gets indexed for efficient searching. For large data files, the indexing can take a long time (e.g. several minutes). However, this only happens once per data file.

If you need more info, please let me know!

Chris

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**Author:** ![cstawarz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/mworks.discourse.group/cstawarz/32/3_2.png) [@cstawarz](https://mworks.discourse.group/u/cstawarz)\
**Post date:** [August 4, 2010, 4:19pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/unpacking-data/719/3 "2010-08-04T16:19:14Z")

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Attachment: [printEvents.m](https://mworks.discourse.group/uploads/short-url/8c9VSN83ZzJunxiMcfnRBPrjQ5F.m) (992 Bytes)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![cstawarz](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/mworks.discourse.group/cstawarz/32/3_2.png) [@cstawarz](https://mworks.discourse.group/u/cstawarz)\
**Post date:** [July 19, 2022, 11:58pm UTC](https://mworks.discourse.group/t/unpacking-data/719/4 "2022-07-19T23:58:14Z")

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