How to import lots of data into matlab from a spreadsheet?

Question

I have an excel spreadsheet with lots of data that I want to import into matlab.

filename = 'for_matlab.xlsx';
sheet = (13*2)+ 1;
xlRange = 'A1:G6';
all_data = {'one_a', 'one_b', 'two_a', 'two_b', 'three_a', 'three_b', 'four_a', 'four_b', 'five_a', 'five_b', 'six_a', 'six_b', 'seven_a', 'seven_b', 'eight_a', 'eight_b', 'nine_a', 'nine_b', 'ten_a', 'ten_b', 'eleven_a', 'eleven_b', 'twelve_a', 'twelve_b', 'thirteen_a', 'thirteen_b', 'fourteen_a'};

%read data from excel spreadsheet
for i=1:sheet,
    all_data{i} = xlsread(filename, sheet, xlRange);
end

Each element of the 'all_data' vector has a corresponding matrix in separate excel sheet. The code above imports the last matrix only into all of the variables. Could somebody tell me how to get it so I can import these matrices into individual matlab variables (without calling the xlsread function 28 times)?

nkjt nkjt · Accepted Answer · 2014-08-13T10:22:06

You define a loop using i but then put sheet in the actual xlsread call, which will just make it read repeatedly from the same sheet (the value of the variable sheet is not changing). Also not sure whether you intend to somehow save the contents of all_data, as written there's no point in defining it that way as it will just be overwritten.

There are two ways of specifying the sheet using xlsread.

1) Using a number. If you intended this then:

all_data{i} = xlsread(filename, i, xlRange);

2) Using the name of the sheet. If you intended this and the contents of all_data are the names of sheets, then:

data{i} = xlsread(filename, all_data{i}, xlRange); %avoiding overwriting

How to import lots of data into matlab from a spreadsheet?

1 Answers