MATLAB: List of all opened Excel Workbooks in Matlab R2018b

excelMATLAB

Hello,

I am trying to create a list of all opened Excel files (some might be new and not yet saved) using

e = actxGetRunningServer('Excel.Application')

as shown in some examples on this website, but

e.Workbooks.Count

always returns 0 and does not see any open workbooks (I had 2 open when testing this).

I am using version R2018b on Windows 7, and the variable values are:

e: COM.Excel_Application

e.Workbooks.Count: 0

I also tried using

actxserver('Excel.Application')

but it does not help either. Can anyone please tell me what needs to be changed in new version of Matlab to make it work?

Best Answer

Unfortunately for you, this behaviour is not controlled by Matlab but by Excel and your OS. In particular, the behaviour may change depending on the version of Excel (not matlab). You'll have more problems with older versions of excel.

It would be interesting to know what:

e.MergeInstances

returns after you've connected to excel (with actxGetRunningServer) and how many excel processes you've got running (again after you've connected to excel).

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 obtain a list of all currently open workbooks through an Excel ACTXSERVER object in MATLAB 7.8 (R2009a)

Assuming you have created an ACTXSERVER or ACTXGETRUNNINGSERVER object named 'e' in MATLAB that connects to a COM/ActiveX instance of Excel:

% Opens a new server instance of Excel
   e = actxserver('excel.application')
% Obtains handle to existing running instance of Excel
e = actxGetRunningServer('excel.application');

the following code demonstrates how to obtain a list of all open Excel files (i.e., workbooks) by invoking Excel's COM API methods:

% Obtain handle to collection of open Workbooks in Excel
w = e.Workbooks;
% Get number of open Workbooks
numWorkbooks = w.Count;
% Query name of each open Workbook
for i = 1:numWorkbooks
      openFiles{i} = w.Item(i).Name;
end
% Display names of open Workbooks
openFiles{:}

Best Answer

Related Solutions

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

MATLAB: How to obtain a list of all currently open workbooks through an Excel ACTXSERVER object in MATLAB 7.8 (R2009a)

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