Made some modifications to preserve original ordering of the table's columns/vars.

import/read_hdf5_as_table.m

@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-function output_table = load_hdf5_as_table(filename,exclude_var_set)
+function output_table = read_hdf5_as_table(filename,exclude_var_set)
 % receives a h5 file written with function table2h5.
 % reduced_var_set (cell of character_vectors), not usable yet.
 
@@ -59,18 +59,40 @@ end
 % Construct cell array with table data, where each row denotes a group, and
 % the columns are either datasets or attributes in the given group.
 tmp = {};
+idx = [];
+group_columns = {};
 for i = 1 : num_rows
     disp(['Begin construction of row:',INFO.Groups(i).Name])
 
     for j = 1 : num_cols
         if j <= num_attr1
             ds_name = [INFO.Groups(i).Name '/' INFO.Groups(i).Datasets(j).Name];
+            
             %disp(ds_name)
             tmp{i,j} = h5read(filename,ds_name); 
+            if i < 2
+                column_idx = str2double(INFO.Groups(i).Datasets(j).Name(3:end));
+                idx = [idx,column_idx];
+            end
         end
-        if j > num_attr2
-            disp(INFO.Groups(i).Attributes(j-num_attr2).Name)
-            tmp{i,j} = h5readatt(filename,INFO.Groups(i).Name,INFO.Groups(i).Attributes(j-num_attr2).Name); 
+        if j > num_attr1
+            Name = INFO.Groups(i).Attributes(j-num_attr1).Name;
+            tmp{i,j} = h5readatt(filename,INFO.Groups(i).Name, Name); 
+            if i < 2
+                
+                disp(Name)
+                % Split attribute name into column_tag (containing original
+                % column idx) and column_name
+    
+                delimiter_idx = find(INFO.Groups(i).Attributes(j-num_attr1).Name=='_');
+                % Left most '_' determines the split location
+                delimiter_idx = delimiter_idx(1); 
+    
+                column_idx = str2double(Name(5:delimiter_idx-1));
+                group_columns = [group_columns,{Name(delimiter_idx+1:end)}];
+                %disp([Name(5:delimiter_idx-1),'-',column_name])
+                idx = [idx,column_idx];
+            end
 
         end
 
@@ -78,8 +100,10 @@ for i = 1 : num_rows
     disp(['Ends construction of row:',INFO.Groups(i).Name])
 
 end
-% TODO: how can we keep the original ordering of the columns if required by
-% Thorsten.
+
+% Find original ordering of columns by sorting idx in ascending order
+[~, idx_perm] = sort(idx,'ascend');
+
 varNames = [dataset_columns,group_columns];
-output_table = array2table(tmp, 'VariableNames', varNames);
+output_table = array2table(tmp(:,idx_perm), 'VariableNames', varNames(idx_perm));