Sample code in xlsread fails

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farhan
farhan on 17 Nov 2012
I am learning about xls file handling and tried some sample code from the Matlab doc file:
xlsread>Read Data from First Worksheet Into Numeric Array
The code is
values = {1, 2, 3 ; 4, 5, 'x' ; 7, 8, 9};
headers = {'First', 'Second', 'Third'};
xlswrite('myExample.xlsx', [headers; values]);
and the output I get is
Warning: Could not start Excel server for export.
XLSWRITE will attempt to write file in CSV format.
> In xlswrite at 175
In plot_from_XL at 14
Error using xlswrite (line 188)
An error occurred on data export in CSV format.
Error in plot_from_XL (line 14)
xlswrite('myExample.xlsx', [headers; values]);
Caused by:
Error using dlmwrite (line 118)
The input cell array cannot be converted to a matrix.
The relevant issue is not the Excel server (whatever that is), but with dlmwrite, because if I try a .csv version:
values = {1, 2, 3 ; 4, 5, 'x' ; 7, 8, 9};
headers = {'First', 'Second', 'Third'};
csvwrite('myExample.csv', [headers; values]);
I get a similar error:
Error using dlmwrite (line 118)
The input cell array cannot be converted to a matrix.
Error in csvwrite (line 43)
dlmwrite(filename, m, ',', r, c);
Error in plot_from_XL (line 10)
csvwrite('myExample.csv', [headers; values]);
I have to think this is some kind of bug in the dlmwrite function.
Any suggestions?

Answers (1)

Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 17 Nov 2012
It works fine for me. I'd say you either don't have Excel installed at all, or you have the Excel "starter edition" that comes free with many computers (like my home computer) and that version is not allowed to do ActiveX operations like xlswrite() does. csvwrite() probably just uses fprintf() to create a text file and does not use Excel as a server.
  2 Comments
farhan
farhan on 19 Nov 2012
Thanks for the suggestion, and for trying the code! I am on a Mac and have Excel 2011 installed. Also, the csvwrite code doesn't elicit the Excel error.
Image Analyst
Image Analyst on 19 Nov 2012
Sorry, I can't help you with that operating system.

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