how to convert or generate prn files to xlsx files

i have .prn files i want to covert those files to xlsx files

[Stephen23]

What kind of PRN file:

• Lotus 1-2-3 active sheet textfile,
• MS Windows printer instruction file,
• something else... ?

[dpb]

That actually looks like a CSV (comma separated variables) file named .prn

Try

data=readcell('1.prn');
writecell(data,'File1.xlsx')
winopen('File1.xlsx')

and see if joy doesn't ensue...

[neela]

if i use this code will i get output files as xlsx file?

[Walter Roberson]

Yes, if you use that code then the output will be xlsx file.

Note: you might need to use

data = readcell('1.prn', 'filetype', 'text');

[neela]

copy and pasted same code but got an error

[Walter Roberson]

data = readcell('C:\Users\vzmglb\Desktop\29july2024\CITYRUN_LK0_STOICH_1.prn', 'filetype', 'text');
writecell(data,'File1.xlsx')
winopen('File1.xlsx')

I am not completely clear as to whether the username is vzmg1b or vzmglb -- looks more like vzmglb to me.

[dpb]

Yeah, I forget about the limited number of file extensions that Mathworks has identified as text....I figure it ought to try anything that isn't known to be something else, but there are so many arcane naming conventions, I guess it's tough. But, .prn is pretty common...

Answer 1

[dpb]

More generically, but the same idea

ROOT='C:\Users\vzmglb\Desktop\29july2024';  % set a root for the data files
d=dir(fullfile(ROOT,'*.prn'));              % return all .prn files; adapt wildcard to suit
for i=1:numel(d);                           % iterate over all files found
  fqn=fullfile(d.folder,d.name);            % build fully-qualified filename
  data=readcell(fqn,'filetype','text');     % read the .prn file
  fqn=strrep(fqn,'.prn','.xlsx');           % convert the filename to match new format/type
  writecell(data,fqn)
end

The above will put a set of files in the same root folder/directory with the base name the same as the original but with the correct .xlsx extension. You could define a different output folder and build the filename similarly as done above for the input if desired.

[dpb]

You did not run the code given which is

data=readcell(fqn,'filetype','text');     % read the .prn file

Use the result from the call to dir() with the fully-qualified filename; don't hard code in a name; that defeats the whole purpose of generalizing the code.

In particular, you gave only a file name without the location which isn't where you're running the MATLAB code from so the file isn't found.

If you want a particular file set, as noted before, modify the wildcard matching pattern to return those of interest or further generalize/adapt the basic code to pass a particular name or add in a call to uigetfile to let you use a dialog to select files.

ADDENDUM

"...don't hard code in a name..."

And certainly there's no point in hard-coding a specific file name inside a loop; if it worked by adding the fully-qualified name that would simply read the same file however many times the loop ran; hardly a useful thing...