MATLAB: How to get xlsread, xlswrite, actxserver to find, read and write to/from Excel 2010

2010actxcontrollistactxservercannot findclick-to-runexcelMATLABnot readingnot workingnot writingxlsreadxlswrite

Matlab newbie. Lots of questions around about why Matlab no longer talks to Excel 2010 – but no satisfactory answers as to how to fix it. These are the errors, refer to the screenshot below

xlswrite: 'Warning: Could not start Excel server for export.'
xlsread: 'Warning: Could not start Excel server for import, 'basic' mode will be used.'
actxserver: 'Server creation failed. Invalid ProgID 'Excel.Application'.'
If I type 'actxcontrollist' I do not see any references to Excel or Spreadsheet.

OCTAVE on the other hand is able to read and write to Excel 2010 with no problems using its xlsread and xlswrite commands, so it would seem that something within Matlab is not doing its job. What do I have to do to setup Matlab so that it will talk to Excel?

This is a major issue as in my case it negates the reason for which it was purchased. Any help solving it would be highly appreciated.

Setup: Win7 (64bit), Matlab2014b (64 bit), Office Home 2010 Italian (32 bit)

Best Answer

Could you be running a so-called "click to run" version of Office ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/982431 )? That version did not export the Active-X hooks MATLAB needs, see this topic for options.

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to rename a sheet in Excel using the COM interface in MATLAB

You can rename an Excel sheet using the "Name" property of a sheet object. For example the following renames the first sheet of an Excel file:

filename = 'C:\SomeExcelFile.xls';
% Open Excel Automation server
Excel = actxserver('Excel.Application');
% Make Excel visible
Excel.Visible=1;
% Open Excel file
Workbook = Excel.Workbooks.Open(filename);
% Get the list of sheets in the workbook
Sheets = Excel.ActiveWorkbook.Sheets;
% Rename the first sheet
Sheets.Item(1).Name = 'This is sheet 1';

The following code then saves the Workbook, quits Excel and removes the COM server:

% Save the file
Workbook.Save();
% Quit Excel, remove the COM server and delete the related objects
Excel.Quit();
Excel.delete();
clear Excel;
clear Workbook;
clear Sheets;

MATLAB: How to add a Header or a Footer to an EXCEL worksheet using MATLAB 7.7 (R2008b)

The ability to programmatically add the Header and Footer to an Excel worksheet can be implemented in MATLAB using the COM interface.

The ACTXSERVER command can be used to create a COM server running Microsoft Excel. You can then add the Header and Footer using the different methods for the workbook and then call XLSWRITE to write the data to the Excel worksheet as follows:

a = actxserver('Excel.Application');
a.Visible =1;
a.Workbooks.Add;
a.activeWorkbook.activesheet.PageSetup.LeftFooter = 'MyFooter';
a.activeWorkbook.activesheet.PageSetup.LeftHeader = 'MyHeader';
a.activeWorkbook.SaveAs('test.xlsx');
a.activeWorkbook.Close;
xlswrite('test.xlsx',[1 2 3]);

The following options can also be modified in a similar way:

a.activeWorkbook.activeWorksheet.PageSetup.CenterHeader 
a.activeWorkbook.activeWorksheet.PageSetup.RightHeader 
a.activeWorkbook.activeWorksheet.PageSetup.CenterFooter 
a.activeWorkbook.activeWorksheet.PageSetup.RightFooter

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to rename a sheet in Excel using the COM interface in MATLAB

MATLAB: How to add a Header or a Footer to an EXCEL worksheet using MATLAB 7.7 (R2008b)

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