Describe the process of reading a CSV file in MATLAB.

The process of reading a CSV file in MATLAB is effectively accomplished using the readtable() or readmatrix() functions. readtable() is particularly useful when the structure of the data is important, such as when dealing with mixed data types (e.g., numerical data alongside strings) or when you want to maintain variable names as column headers. It returns a table, which is a data type in MATLAB specifically designed for storing heterogeneous data in a structured format.

On the other hand, readmatrix() is useful for reading plain numerical data from a CSV file, returning the data as a matrix. This function is beneficial when you are working exclusively with numerical values and do not need to keep track of headers or variable names.

This combination of functions addresses different scenarios depending on the nature of the CSV file being read, making them versatile tools for data import tasks in MATLAB. The other functions mentioned do not align as closely with standard practices for reading CSV files in MATLAB, since importCSV() and loadCSV() are not built-in MATLAB functions for this purpose and csvread() has been deprecated in favor of the more robust options mentioned.