They can be created on one machine and later read by MATLAB on another machine with a different floating-point format, retaining as much accuracy and range as the different formats allow. MAT-files are double-precision, binary, MATLAB format files. This section explains how to save the variables in your MATLAB session to a binary file called a MAT-file, and how to load them back into your MATLAB workspace. Saving and Loading MAT-Files :: Data Import and Export (Programming) Programming