xlswrite - legacy
NOTE: I built this a million years ago, before it was provided with MATLAB. I recommend you use xlswrite, or even better writetable, that have been in MATLAB for many years now.
Creates a Microsoft Excel format spreadsheet using the MATLAB ActiveX interface. This can also open the spreadsheet directly without ever saving to a file.
Nothing too fancy:
- Supports arbitrary number of header lines
- Supports column headers
- Writes a single matrix
- Can write to specific sheets (thanks Fahad!)
Example:
m = rand(100,4);
header = 'This is some introductory information at the top of my spreadsheet.';
colnames = {'Ch1','Ch2','Ch3','Ch4'};
filename = 'myfile.xls';
xlswrite(m,header,colnames,filename);
Will create a spreadsheet named myfile.xls
Cite As
Michelle Hirsch (2021). xlswrite - legacy (https://github.com/michellehirsch/xlswrite--Legacy), GitHub. Retrieved .
Comments and Ratings (46)
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Acknowledgements
Inspired: xlsheets, dat2xls, xlschart, XLSWriteMex, table2word, xlswrite_mod, xlcolumn, xlswrite, Example of how to save or read data to an Excel archive.
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I am a starter in Matlab and I have faced a small problem.
I want to write the program so that some variable values can be writen into excel. eg. (A=12, B=14,C=15...)
However, since this program will be run many times and update each of the variables into excel. So Everytime, I need to writen in a new row to ensure there is no overwriting. for instant:
xlswrite('Z:\junk\new.xls',ProbeName,'Gain','A3');
xlswrite('Z:\junk\new.xls',GainPX(1),'Gain','B3');
xlswrite('Z:\junk\new.xls',GainNX(1),'Gain','C3');
However, since new.xls contain lots of those information (It will update each experiment result). Every time I run this program, I want it automatically find the correct address under the last update. The problem is I don't know how many update were in the excel so I cannot determine which row i will begin to write.
Is there any command so that I can find whats the last row of an excel document so that I can ensure where should I update my data to this excel file. Many Thanks.
Just a note to requests for new features - the xlswrite that has shipped with MATLAB since R14 (MATLAB 7) offers much more flexibility than mine, so I encourage you to check it out if this one doesn't address your needs.
well, that is sad you do not accept any number in the titles of the columns... for example, if you want to have
frequency1 = 10 as a title
...
Hi, I want to know if there are some way to write in excel 2007 format (*.xlsx)
Does not work as written
Works very well but probably an addition to the functionality could be writing row headers (titles) ?
Maybe there is a way to do it using the current version, but I was unable to do it!
Hi,
Is there any way to get xlswrite to either write to a file name that has been date/time stamped, or write to a generic file name with a worksheet that has been date/time stamped?
The code I am working on is meant to be run multiple times, to generate sets of answers, and I am trying to prevent having to alter the code each time for a unique file name.
Thanks for any help!
Laura
Hi,
Could you please let me know if there is a way to use xlswrite to save to the next empty row. I am trying to use the built-in xlswrite function to save data to an existing excel file. Is there code that will detect the location of the next empty row and save the data there? I tried the following code but it gives me an error: [num txt DataRange]=xlsread(fileName);
[z v]=size(DataRange)
z=z+1%gives the number of the next empty row
range=sprintf('A \b%d',z)%range should start in column A of row
xlswrite(fileName,data,1, range);
Thanks
Hello,
Could you please let me know if there is any version of xlswrite which handles Column and Row headers? If yes, may I have the '.m' code?
Thanks a lot
Mohammed
This functionality is now built in to the core MATLAB product. There are now built-in functions like xlswrite, xlsread, xlsinfo, etc. (See the help entry on Excel.) So you most likely won't need to download this code.
In order to create new worksheets if the sheetname does not exist, modify the section "% Make the specified sheet active." from the code "xlswrite.m" as shown below.
% Make the specified sheet active.
try
Sheets = Excel.ActiveWorkBook.Sheets;
target_sheet = get(Sheets, 'Item', sheetname);
catch
% Error if the sheet doesn't exist. It would be nice to create it, but
% I'm too lazy.
% The alternative to try/catch is to call xlsfinfo to see if the sheet exists, but
% that's really slow.
% error(['Sheet ' sheetname ' does not exist!']);
% Creating new sheet if it does not exist
hWSs=op.worksheets;
target_sheet = invoke(hWSs,'Add');
target_sheet.Name=sheetname;
end;
I am using windows 2000 and when I save data into the sheet2, data that were on the sheet1 disappeard.
The function works great (except for that irritating 65535-means-NaN thing) on my computer; however, testing my program on a different PC, with Excel 2003, I received error message
??? Invoke Error, Dispatch Exception:
Source: Microsoft Office Excel
Description: Microsoft Office Excel cannot access the file 'N:\stats\MATLAB7\work'. There are several possible reasons:
? The file name or path does not exist.
? The file is being used by another program.
? The workbook you are trying to save has the same name as a currently open workbook.
Help File: C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\OFFICE11\1033\xlmain11.chm
Help Context ID: 0
No disks are write-protected, no Excel files are open. Could the authors please test the m-file's compatibility with Excel 2003?
On my PC, with Excel 2002, spreadsheets generated by the function have '65535' whenever a NaN was; in addition, to make numbers show in a reasonable format (e.g. with two decimal places), one needs to go through the steps of selecting the range and formatting cells as 'numeric'. Would it be possible to let user avoid this small but unnecessary hassle?
Thank you.
Oh yes.
Just what I needed.....Thanks!
be careful about the kind of filenames you pass. by default the results are stored in the working directory. To use an absolute path modify the lines 99 and 104 to avoid using the pwd and filesep.
Replace
invoke(op, 'SaveAs', [pwd filesep filename]);
with
invoke(op, 'SaveAs', filename);
And also
Replace
op = invoke(Excel.Workbooks, 'open', [pwd filesep filename]);
With
op = invoke(Excel.Workbooks, 'open', filename);
This should allow you to pass any arbitrary pathname as long as the file can be created in the path you specify, the function will work fine.
Great job!!
Bloody marvelous
great, here's the code to add sheet in case it doesn't exist:
% Make the specified sheet active.
try
Sheets = Excel.ActiveWorkBook.Sheets;
target_sheet = get(Sheets, 'Item', sheetname);
catch
try
target_sheet = invoke( Sheets, 'add' );
set( target_sheet, 'name', sheetname );
catch
error(['Sheet ' sheetname ' does not exist!, and could not be created']);
end
end;
Great. It really help me a lot!
Very Smart. Great Job. It works.
Nice one.. would be nice to be able to set an option to ask for a filename with a dialog? Thanks!
It's a great function indeed and I'm glade it is going to be a part of (MATLAB 7.0)! My only suggestion is to add an option for writing to a selected sheet.
Worked like a charm, it's great. Thanks a lot
Eric
so cool!
This function is really hot -- it's simple, well written, easy to use and fairly robust. The author has included generous comments in the function, which allow the user to make simple changes easily, in order to tailor the function to your specific needs. WELL DONE!
this add in really helped me a lot. thanks for it
Great !
Thanks
Very good add in. Can be a bit slow, but who really needs fast data transfer to excel. I am getting a lot of use out of this, and it kept me from writing my own function to take care of this.
Thanks, Chris
Thanks for sharing it, it's really helpful. It can be easily modified to add a 'file update' option...just one thing : Excel ActiveX server creation sometimes bugs if the function is applied several times. In that case, it's better to open only one ActiveX server and to close it outside of the function, after computation !
This is very good. Thanks for sharing it.
Very helpful indeed. The option that is still missing in my opinion, is to add new data in an existing file for which you did already make a layout in excel. Let's say, not only create a file, but also update the cells in an existing excel layout, and this without opening the excel file or even the excel program... Thanks for letting me know if the code has been added ;-)
thanks, useful
Thank you very much, you just saved us an increadible amount of time
helpful
Nice, but you aren't really using ActiveX to it's full potential which will let you format the cells, shade, border and so forth. You can do the exact same thing without purchasing ActiveX by just giving a tab-delimited (tab spaced) ASCII file the extension .xls and calling "excel filename" through a command prompt (type help !). Nice that you can open without saving though...that is definitely useful.
this is brilliant.
I was thinking of something along these lines, and just because Scott was profiled as a free t-shirt winner, I happened to click on his profile and found this utility.