Access or skip excel file that is locked for editing within a loop?

While running a loop the code errors out on a file that is locked for editing.

excel_xlsx=dir('*.xlsx');  % list of the files

for i=1:length(excel_xlsx);
    [~,file]=xlsfinfo(excel_xlsx(i).name);
    L=length(file);
    [~,txt]=xlsread(excel_xlsx(i).name,L,'B2');   % read the text
    [~,txt2]=xlsread(excel_xlsx(i).name,1,'B3');  % read the text
    [~,txt3]=xlsread(excel_xlsx(i).name,1,'A10'); % read the text
    [~,txt4]=xlsread(excel_xlsx(i).name,1,'A2');  % read the text
  if strcmp(txt,'Number:');
    delete(excel_xlsx(i).name);
  elseif strcmp(txt2,'PROGRAM');
    delete(excel_xlsx(i).name);
  elseif strcmp(txt3,'UPPER');
    delete(excel_xlsx(i).name);
  else
    strcmp(txt4,'Effect');
    [~,sheets] = xlsfinfo(excel_xlsx(i).name);
    xlsprotect(excel_xlsx(i).name,'unprotect_sheet',sheets{1,1});
    xlswrite(excel_xlsx(i).name,' ',1,'F1:F3');
    xlswrite(excel_xlsx(i).name,' ',1,'E1:E4');
  end
end

The code errors out at the following for i=15 which is interesting because the file is in position 11 within the folder, they are sorted alphabetically.

[~,txt]=xlsread(excel_xlsx(i).name,L,'B2');   % read the text

The display of the file that is causing the error is '~$VR380_001.xlsx' found from variable 'excel_xlsx(15,1)'

However the display of all the other files is 'VR442_004.xlsx', 'VR442_008.xlsx', etc.

This is my previous code regarding this portion before I condensed multiple for loops to save time and it never caused any error.

SVMS_xlsx=dir('*.xlsx');  % list of the files

for i=1:length(SVMS_xlsx)
    [~,file]=xlsfinfo(SVMS_xlsx(i).name);
    L=length(file);
    [~,txt]=xlsread(SVMS_xlsx(i).name,L,'B2');   % read the text
  if strcmp(txt,'Number:')
    delete(SVMS_xlsx(i).name)
  end
end

this is the error message I get, the code is running within a GUI

Error using xlsread (line 251)

Error in ProcessCDRL>pushbutton1_Callback (line 116)
    [~,txt]=xlsread(excel_xlsx(i).name,L,'B2');   % read the text

Error in gui_mainfcn (line 95)
        feval(varargin{:});

Error in ProcessCDRL (line 42)
    gui_mainfcn(gui_State, varargin{:});

Error in matlab.graphics.internal.figfile.FigFile/read>@(hObject,eventdata)ProcessCDRL('pushbutton1_Callback',hObject,eventdata,guidata(hObject))

Error while evaluating UIControl Callback

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Microsoft Office uses temporary files that start with a tilde. Chances are that you have the file open in Excel, or abruptly shut down Excel once and left this litter behind. You can skip such files like this:

thisFileName = SVMS_xlsx(i).name
if strcmp(thisFileName, '~')
    continue; % Skip filenames starting with ~
end
[~,file] = xlsfinfo(thisFileName );