MATLAB: Only read data once (with xlsread)

Question

Hi there,

I am using xlsread to import data from Excel. This takes quite some time, but that's ok. The real problem is that Matlab loads the data whenever I run the script. Hence, whenever I change a few variables and run the whole script, I have to wait minutes because matlab is working on re-loading the data using xlsread.

Is there any way to only load the data ONCE and not every time I run the whole script?

Any help is much appreciated. Thank you very much.

Best Christian

Answer 1

If the Excel file never changes, one option is to save the data in it as a .mat file. Those are smaller to store and faster to load.

Another option is to create your script as a function and store your Excel file as a persistent variable, then calling your function from a new external script file. Running it as a function instead of a script has disadvantages as well, so consider those and decide if that is an acceptable tradeoff for loading your Excel file each time.