matlab quickie: test if text file is empty

Question

Simple question: I am opening a file in matlab 7.x, and I want to test if it is empty before reading it. What's the best way to do this?

Answer 1

got it:

fid = fopen(fil);
if all(fgetl(fid) == -1)
  % file is empty
else
  fseek(fid,0,-1); % rewind it
end

Answer 2

Taking some knowledge from this previous question, I would do the following

s = dir('c:\somefile.txt');
if s.bytes == 0
    % empty file
else
    % open the file and read it
end;

I assumed by empty that you meant that there is really nothing in the file including new line characters. If by empty you mean only new line characters, then you should go ahead with your solution.

Answer 3

This is the cleanest way I can think of:

if fseek(fileID, 1, 'bof') == -1
   % empty file
else
   rewind(fileID)
   % ready to read
end