title: Reading CSV with mixed type data
body: <p>I need to read the following <code>csv</code> file in MATLAB:</p>
  
  <pre><code>2009-04-29 01:01:42.000;16271.1;16271.1
  2009-04-29 02:01:42.000;2.5;16273.6
  2009-04-29 03:01:42.000;2.599609;16276.2
  2009-04-29 04:01:42.000;2.5;16278.7
  ...
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I'd like to have three columns:<br>
  timestamp;value1;value2  </p>
  
  <p>I tried the approaches described here:<br>
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/1641519/reading-date-and-time-from-csv-file-in-matlab">Reading date and time from CSV file in MATLAB</a><br>
  modified as:  </p>
  
  <pre><code>filename = 'prova.csv';  
  fid = fopen(filename, 'rt');  
  a = textscan(fid, '%s %f %f', ...  
          'Delimiter',';', 'CollectOutput',1);  
  fclose(fid);
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But it returs a 1x2 cell, whose first element is <code>a{1}='ÿþ2'</code>, the other are empty.  </p>
  
  <p>I had also tried to adapt to my case the answers to these questions:<br>
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10200856/importing-data-with-time-in-matlab?rq=1">importing data with time in MATLAB</a><br>
  <a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/6534866/read-data-files-with-specific-format-in-matlab-and-convert-date-to-matal-serial">Read data files with specific format in matlab and convert date to matal serial time</a><br>
  but I didn't succeed.</p>
  
  <p>How can I import that <code>csv</code> file?</p>
  
  <p><strong>EDIT</strong> After the answer of @macduff i try to copy-paste in a new file the data reported above and use:  </p>
  
  <pre><code>a = textscan(fid, '%s %f %f','Delimiter',';');  
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and it works.
  Unfortunately that didn't solve the problem because I have to process <code>csv</code> files generated automatically, which seems to be the cause of the strange MATLAB behavior.</p>