VB6: How To Read Data from Binary File in IEEE Floating Point, Little-Endian Format?

I have a proprietary binary file here that contains a variable called 'Hydroxyl #', seven sample titles (2, 5, 9, 12, 20, 23, 31 - these titles could just as easily be text, so they are probably stored as strings), and the associated float values for the variable (44.94, 46.17, 51.93, 54.08, 61.62, 63.75, 84.77). I have attached the zipped data file in 'Polyvl.zip'.

Below, I have also pasted a Matlab script that a long-since departed member of our company wrote to read the file. The script uses the 'fopen' command with the 'ieee-le' option (IEEE Float-Point, Little-Endian, bits not explicity specified).

My question is, how do I properly read (and also, display) this data properly in Visual Basic 6? I am currently using the 'Open ... For Binary Access Read ...' statement and the 'Input' statement to read the data into a Variant type variable. I am able to grab some of the data (Hydroxl #), but the rest looks like garbage.

Contact me at DSanborn3@hotmail, or DSanborn3 (at AIM, MSN, Yahoo) with additional questions or comments. TIA!

Regards,

Daniel

//-----Begin Matlab Script (read_da.m)---------------

function [a,spl_name]=read_da(fn);
% READ_DA -- read NIR NSAS data files.
%
% [a,spl_name]=read_da('filename');
% or
% [a,spl_name]=read_da;
%
% Will not work for full Vis/NIR range.
% Works for spectra transferred from pc to rs/6000 via binary ftp.
%
% See read_fda for reading full Vis/NIR range.

if nargin==0,
[fn,pt]=uigetfile('*.da','Select NSAS *.da file');
fn = fullfile(pt,fn);
end

inp=fopen(fn,'r','ieee-le');

nspec=0;
k=fread(inp,128,'char');

fseek(inp,2944,-1);
%
% loop for reading sample names
%
while ~feof(inp)
nspec=nspec+1;
da=k(65)+k(66)*256;
mo=k(67)+k(68)*256;
yr=k(69)+k(70)*256;
hr=k(71)+k(72)*256;
mi=k(73)+k(74)*256;
se=k(75)+k(76)*256;
spl_name(nspec,1:30)=[setstr(k(5:14))' sprintf(' %2g:%2g:%2g %2g-%2g-%4g',hr,mi,se,mo,da,yr)];
k=fread(inp,128,'char');
fseek(inp,(nspec+1)*2944,-1);
end;

frewind(inp);
a=zeros(nspec,700);
for i=1:nspec
k=fread(inp,2944./4,'float');

a(i,=k(33:732)';
end;
fclose(inp);

//-----End Matlab Script (read_da.m)-----------------