MATLAB: Is it possible for MATLAB to read the Excel XLSX format on a Mac

2007basicdocxexcelMATLABxlsreadxlstxml

I have a Mac and I would like to use the new Excel XLSX file format. This is based on XML and is standardized.

Best Answer

This enhancement has been incorporated in Release 2012a (R2012a). For previous product releases, read below for any possible workarounds:

The ability to read XLSX files on a Mac is not available in MATLAB. The workaround is to use Excel to save the file in Excel 97 format.

You can save the file as follows:

File->Save As->Change the type to Microsft Excel 97- Excel 2003 & 5.0/95 Workbook (*.xls)

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to save a workbook compatible with older version of Microsoft Excel using ACTXSERVER in MATLAB 7.4 (R2007a)

You can save a file in a format compatible with older versions of Microsoft Excel by using the SAVEAS method of Workbooks and specifying an input argument as in the example below:

file = 'C:\myfilename.xls';
xlswrite(file, rand(5)); 
myApp = actxserver('Excel.Application');
myApp.visible = 1;
workbook = myApp.Workbooks.Open(file);
workbook.SaveAs('C:\myfilename2.xls',43);
%Saves the file in a format compatible with MS Excel 95 and 97
myApp.Quit;

MATLAB: Spreadsheet import tool in 2011b

I raised this issue directly with Mathworks support. Here is the reply I received:

The ability to read XLSX files is not available on the Mac OS. On the Mac OS, MATLAB does support a 'BASIC' mode that works with XLS files that are saved in the "Excel 97-2003" format. Since the connection to Excel is based on the Microsoft specific COM technology, all functionalilites of Excel are not available on the Mac OS.

In order to work around this issue, please use the following steps: [1] Copy the data into a new Excel Workbook and saved it as a 'Excel 97-2003' with a '.xls' file extension (I named this file 'test.xls'). [2] Using XLSREAD on Mac OS, read the data from the XLS file mentioned in step 1.

Alternatively, you could save the data as a Comma Separated Values (CSV) file and read it using CSVREAD. Please note that CSVREAD works only for numeric values. For more documentation on CSVREAD, please use the following command at the MATLAB command line.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

MATLAB: How to save a workbook compatible with older version of Microsoft Excel using ACTXSERVER in MATLAB 7.4 (R2007a)

MATLAB: Spreadsheet import tool in 2011b

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