XLSWRITE alternative XLWRITE on a Mac

Hi,

I'm running a custom program in Matlab that required xlswrite. However, since I'm working on a Mac, xlswrite is not available. I tried using xlwrite http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/37560-xlwrite---export-data-to-excel-from-matlab-on-mac-win, but it's not really working, either.

My program requires to read the cells in an existing xls-file or create a new one and write to this. However, for some reason that doesn't seem to work.

Here is the code I need to get working

%column headers for excel spreadsheet
colhds_excel={'Input file', 'Source', 'Call type', ...
    'Start time', 'Start Filename', 'End time', 'End Filename', 'Frequency 1','Frequency 2','Frequency 3','Frequency 4',...
    'Comments', 'jpeg file?', '(e)wav file?'};

%if no logfile yet, ask them to specify one
if  isempty(handles.logfilename) | isequal(handles.logfilename,0);
    [handles.logfilename, handles.logfilepath]=uigetfile('*.xls', ...
        'select a spreadsheet (hit ''cancel'' to create new sheet)');

      %if user selects an existing spreadsheet:
          if exist([handles.logfilepath '\' handles.logfilename])==2;
              [xlnum, xltext, xlcell]= ...
                  xlsread([handles.logfilepath '\' handles.logfilename],1);

              if isnumeric(xlcell)
                  if isnan(xlcell);      %worksheet 1 has not been written to yet
                      xlwrite([handles.logfilepath '\' handles.logfilename],...
                      colhds_excel, 'Sheet1', 'A1');         %write col hdrs
                      lastrow=1;
                  end
              else lastrow=size(xlcell,1);
              end

              rowstartnum=lastrow+1;
  %             T= xlcell(lastrow, 2);                  %read last event number
  %             t=char(T);                              %convert from cell to string   
  %             lastevent=str2num(t(end-4:end));        %convert to number
  %             eventcount=lastevent+1;        %add one to last event number

      %if user selects cancel, allow user to create new file
          elseif isequal(handles.logfilename,0) | isequal(handles.logfilepath,0);
              [handles.logfilename,handles.logfilepath, filterindex] = ...
                  uiputfile('.xls', 'create new file');

              %if cancel pushed again, get out of if loop
                  if isequal(handles.logfilename,0) | isequal(handles.logfilepath,0);
                      return

                  else xlwrite([handles.logfilepath '\' handles.logfilename],...
                      colhds_excel, 'Sheet1', 'A1');         %write col hdrs
  %                 eventcount=1;                  %start event number at 1 for new spreadsheet
                  rowstartnum=2;                 %start writing data in 2nd row (1st row=headers)
                  end
          end

%if logfile already exists, append to it starting
%at last row + 1; also need to add 1 to last event number
elseif exist([handles.logfilepath '\' handles.logfilename])==2;
    [xlnum, xltext, xlcell]=xlsread([handles.logfilepath '\' handles.logfilename],1);

      if isnumeric(xlcell)
                  if isnan(xlcell);      %worksheet 1 has not been written to yet
                      xlwrite([handles.logfilepath '\' handles.logfilename],...
                      colhds_excel, 'Sheet1', 'A1');         %write col hdrs
                      lastrow=1;
                  end
      else lastrow=size(xlcell,1);
      end
      rowstartnum=lastrow+1;
  %     T= xlcell(lastrow, 2);                  %read last event number
  %     t=char(T);                              %convert from cell to string   
  %     lastevent=str2num(t(end-4:end));        %convert to number
  %     eventcount=lastevent+1;         %add one to last event number
  %     set(handles.eventnumber,'String',...
  %         [get(handles.username, 'string')...
  %     handles.dateid '_' sprintf('%05d',handles.eventcount)]);
  end

% handles.eventcount=eventcount;
% set(handles.eventnumber,'String',...
%     [get(handles.username, 'string')...
%     handles.dateid '_' sprintf('%05d',handles.eventcount)]);

% eventnum=get(handles.eventnumber, 'string');

%make row vector of data
%have to convert strings from char to cell
M=[{handles.infilename} handles.selectedspecies {calltype} ...
    {startpick} {char(handles.startfilepick)} {endpick} {char(handles.endfilepick)} {frequency1} {frequency2} {frequency3} {frequency4}...
    {comments} {jpegfilename} {wavefilename}];

%write to excel file
% outfname= {fullfile(handles.logfilepath, handles.logfilename)};

xlwrite([handles.logfilepath, '\', handles.logfilename], M, 'Sheet1', ['A' num2str(rowstartnum)]);

Amongst others, I do get the error that rowstartnum is undefined.

Any help is VERY much appreciated.

(MATLAB 2015b, MS Excel 2011 installed)

EDIT:

Ok, I think the issue is, that my program can't READ the existing file to begin with (of course it can't read the size, then, if it can't even open the file). Any work around for Mac?

Answer 1

[John D'Errico]

Gosh, I wonder why xlswrite is in my release, ON MY MAC.

[Anke Kügler]

Is it? I was trying my code with xlswrite, but it was not working. It was writing csv-files (and than f** up when trying to read from the non-existing xls-file), as expected when reading older comments on the issue.

The xlsread-issue remains, too.

Answer 2

[Walter Roberson]

As documented at http://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/xlswrite.html#zmw57dd0e861087

Limitations

If your computer does not have Excel for Windows®, or if the COM server (part of the typical installation of Excel) is unavailable, then the xlswrite function:

• Writes array A to a text file in comma-separated value (CSV) format. A must be a numeric matrix.
• Ignores the sheet and xlRange arguments.

Perhaps you could try http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/38591-xlwrite--generate-xls-x--files-without-excel-on-mac-linux-win

[Anke Kügler]

Ok, I downloaded this version and installed the POI library, but it's still not working. When trying with an example, I get the following error:

Error using xlwrite (line 286)
Java exception occurred:
java.io.FileNotFoundException: myExample.xls (Permission denied)
  at java.io.FileOutputStream.open(Native Method)
  at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:221)
  at java.io.FileOutputStream.<init>(FileOutputStream.java:110)

What now?

Edit:

Nevermind, I wasn't paying attention to my paths and was trying to write to one where I don't have access to. Seems to be working, now.

However, the xslread remains a major issue. I already included the 'basic' part in the arguments and it seems to be reading my test file. However, I still don't get the rowstartnum. Does anybody have any idea? Thank you very much!