%% Read Nondefault Control Characters
% Use sprintf to convert nondefault escape sequences in your data.
% Create text that includes a form feed character, \f. Then, to read the text using textscan, call sprintf to explicitly convert the form feed.

lyric = sprintf('Blackbird\fsinging\fin\fthe\fdead\fof\fnight');
C = textscan(lyric,'%s','delimiter',sprintf('\f'));
C{1}

% textscan returns a cell array, C.
% Copyright 2012 The MathWorks, Inc.