refer to excel data using excel column numbers ?

I read in a large excel data file using readmatrix :

data = readmatrix('press.xlsx');

I would like to refer to the data by the original column names in excel - for example, for the third column, something like :

x = data(:,'C')

This runs but produces wrong results - Any way to make this work ? Thanks

Answer 1

[Voss]

Use readtable instead of readmatrix.

[Voss]

@Ambady Suresh: Did this answer work for you?

[Ambady Suresh]

@Voss - Yes and No. The read table works as you suggest with column names. However, the return type is different. So I kept getting errors like Operator '-' is not supported for operands of type 'table', etc.

[Voss]

When data is a table, you would say:

x = data{:,'C'}

or:

x = data.C

Please see:

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/matlab_prog/access-data-in-a-table.html