Is it possible to make XLSREAD and XLSWRITE compatible with Mac (when Excel is installed) on MATLAB 7.12 (2011a)?

I would like to use XLSREAD and XLSWRITE on Mac OS X (when Excel is installed). However, when I call XLSWRITE, for example, I get the following warning message, and only a comma-separated (CSV) data file is created:

 Warning: Could not start Excel server for export.

 XLSWRITE attempts to file in CSV format.

 > In xlswrite at 157

In addition, arguments such as sheet range, when passed to XLSWRITE, have no effect.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

The ability to use XLSWRITE on a Mac system to create Excel files is not available in MATLAB 7.12 (R2011a). XLSWRITE instead creates CSV (comma-separated value) files when used on a Mac, and provides the same functionality as it does on Linux and UNIX platforms.

The full functionality of XLSWRITE depends on the ability to instantiate Microsoft Excel as a COM server. COM is a technology developed for Windows platforms and is not available for the Mac. Thus XLSWRITE as well as XLSREAD have limited functionality on the Mac platform and work in basic mode.

Support for XLSREAD on Mac OS X may be considered for a future release of MATLAB. Unfortunately, there are no workarounds for the issue at this time.