Cell Array to CSV-file [cell2csv.m]

Writes a cell array into a comma separated values text file (*.csv)

Description

This function writes a cell array into a CSV-file.
It works with empty cells, numeric, char, string and logical cells. One array can contain all of them, but only one value per cell.

CSV-files can then be read by Excel, so you don't need DDE or ActiveX.

• MATLAB release: MATLAB 7.8 (R2009a)

[Ted Skolnick]

Simple and effective.

[Juan F. Navas]

It is simple, it is effective, and not only can write csv, it can read formats created by the user changing the "separator". Needs and adjustement at line 32:
fprintf(datei,trennZeichen);

[Sergio Lucero]

Great. Also needs to accept a different separator, so besides line 32 it needs to change line 12 to
if nargin<3,trennZeichen = ';';end

[Marcelo Zeri]

Excelent, exactly what I need.

[C T]

 

[R K]

since it is a csv it should be commas as the seperator.

if nargin<3,trennZeichen = ',';end

[P L]

In addition to R k's comment, change lines 32-34 to:

        if s ~= size(cellArray,2)
            fprintf(datei, trennZeichen);
        end

[Miklos Argyelan]

 

[Manish Mittal]

Here is another version of the same file with append, overwrite etc options. Also the delimeter issue is fixed

function cell2csv(filename,cellArray,delimiter,mode)
% Writes cell array content into a *.csv file.
%
% CELL2CSV(filename,cellArray,delimiter)
%
% filename = Name of the file to save. [ i.e. 'text.csv' ]
% cellarray = Name of the Cell Array where the data is in
% delimiter = seperating sign, normally:',' (it's default)
% mode = specifies the mode of opening the file. See fopen() for a detailed
% list (default is overwrite i.e. 'w')
%
% by Sylvain Fiedler, KA, 2004
% modified by Rob Kohr, Rutgers, 2005 - changed to english and fixed delimiter
if nargin<3
    delimiter = ',';
end
if nargin<4
    mode = 'w';
end

datei = fopen(filename,mode);
for z=1:size(cellArray,1)
    for s=1:size(cellArray,2)
        
        var = eval(['cellArray{z,s}']);
        
        if size(var,1) == 0
            var = '';
        end
        
        if isnumeric(var) == 1
            var = num2str(var);
        end
        
        fprintf(datei,var);
        
        if s ~= size(cellArray,2)
            fprintf(datei,[delimiter]);
        end
    end
    fprintf(datei,'\n');
end
fclose(datei);

[Mike B]

As per the comments above this is excellent. I'm using it just to generate text file output, so its perfect.

[Chris Curtis]

This is a big help. I'm having a hard time wrapping my mind around cell arrays and this is perfect. Very flexible, simple, and user-friendly. Thanks!

[Kevin Keegan]

Is there a code for a reverse version of this -- csv2cell ? I've seen C versions but not Matlab ones -- having a bit of trouble writing one myself.
Thanks -- Kevin

[Joe Lotz]

Very help, thanks alot for sharing!

[Wouter Rogiest]

I am using this in all my MATLAB code --thanx! but I can't help wondering if anyone has made a csv2cell ?

[R B]

Buggy. Breaks fprintf in some cases

[R B]

This is apparently an older version of another cell2cvs on mathworks.com and should be removed

[helen chen]

so far it's working fine:) btw, you could use the textscan function in matlab 7 to convert csv to cell array

[Anastasia]

Thanks for the great script, just a note, I modified the line 56 to allow for output with CR/LF termination as required by some windows and visual basic programs.

 fprintf(datei,'\r\n');

It may be worth adding as an option.

[Ivan Brezani]

 

[Irene]

Thanks; just used it to convert a 1048576x10 cell array to csv, took about 5 hours but didn't crash.

[Robert]

Nice m-script. Here a diff to account for cellstr contents and empty cells:
diff cell2csv.m cell2csv_orig.m
70,73c70,72
< if isempty(var)
< continue
< end
<
---
> % OUTPUT value
> fprintf(datei, '%s', var);
>
75c74
< if s ~= 1 %size(cellArray, 2)
---
> if s ~= size(cellArray, 2)
78,86d76
<
< % OUTPUT value
< if ischar(var)
< fprintf(datei, '%s', var);
< elseif iscellstr(var)
< fprintf(datei, '%s', var{1});
< end
<
<

[Wouter]

csv2cell can be done by using a combination of uigetfile and textscan.

[Reza Farrahi Moghaddam]

 

[Pearl]