Open mat file in excel without matlab

It is possible to import a MAT file into an excel sheet directly by using one of the following workarounds:

1) MATLAB Compiler( In R2014b and earliear version, MATLAB Builder EX) can be used to create an Excel Add-in which would perform the same.

2) Spreadsheet Link can be used to import a MAT file but would require MATLAB in the background.

3) The third option is to use the MAT file API, which is a set of libraries, using which you can call the MAT file API in a VBA application in order to import MAT files directly into Excel environment.

More information on MAT file API can be found in the link below

In order to use the above workaround, you would have to write VBA code to access the functions in the DLL. You would have to create a wrapper DLL, which is another C/C++ DLL that access the DLL as shown in the below example matcreat.c

The Wrapper DLL would then expose functions that can be called from VBA.

The format would be similar to the below code:

Private Declare Function matOpen Lib "libmat.dll" (filename As String, mode As String) As Long

Private Declare Function matClose Lib "libmat.dll" (mfp As Long) As Integer

Private Declare Function matGetVariable Lib "libmat.dll" (mfp As Long, name As String) As Long

Sub test()

matHandle = matOpen("C:\LocalData\Requests\Excel_MAT\test.mat", "r")

Call matClose(matHandle)

End Sub

But instead of using the libmat.dll, wrapper DLL must be used.

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for i=1:10

j(i)=i*5:

end

save('j.mat', 'j')

can i import this j.mat file in excel?

Accepted Answer

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There are several worksarounds to do that, as explained in

Alternatively, you could create an excel file from Matlab using

More Answers (1)

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Not sure if it's feasible to import .mat file directly to excel. However you can save your data from Matlab directly to an xls file using xlswrite() function.

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I have done a project in Matlab and now I have uninstalled Matlab. Now, I need some reference of my project. I'm left with all the .mat files. I'm trying to open them in notepad and I'm getting unicode characters over there. My question is simple. How do I open the Matlab code in .mat file into notepad or some word processor?

asked Sep 12, 2014 at 14:31

7

.mat files contain binary data, so you will not be able to open them easily with a word processor. There are some options for opening them outside of MATLAB:

If all you need to do is look at the files, you could obtain Octave, which is a free, but somewhat slower implementation of MATLAB. You can refer to How do you open .mat files in Octave? for more information on the subject. You can get octave from http://www.gnu.org/software/octave/download.html. The interface is very similar to MATLAB's.

As NKN and Ergodicity mentioned, there are python libaries available for this as well.

The most hardcore solution would be to write your own processor from scratch. The MAT file specification is available from MathWorks at http://www.mathworks.com/help/pdf_doc/matlab/matfile_format.pdf.

answered Sep 12, 2014 at 14:39

Mad PhysicistMad Physicist

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1

I didn't use it myself but heard of a simple tool (not a text editor) for this so it is definitely possible without setting up a programming environment (by installing octave or python).

A quick search hints that it was possible with total commander. (A lightweight tool with an easy point and click interface)

I would not be surprised if this still works, but I can't guarantee it.

answered Sep 12, 2014 at 14:42

Dennis JaheruddinDennis Jaheruddin

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A .mat-file is a compressed binary file. It is not possible to open it with a text editor (except you have a special plugin as Dennis Jaheruddin says). Otherwise you will have to convert it into a text file (csv for example) with a script. This could be done by python for example: Read .mat files in Python.

answered Sep 12, 2014 at 14:37

Semjon MössingerSemjon Mössinger

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There's a really nice easy way to do this in Macintosh OsX. A fellow has made a quicklook plugin (command-space) that renders .mat formats so you can view the variables inside etc. Quite useful! https://github.com/jaketmp/matlab-quicklook/releases

answered Jan 13, 2017 at 23:23

Maybe MatFileViewer can be used to view mat file without matlab.

But it only supports 1D and 2D mat file.

answered Nov 27, 2021 at 13:07

You can simply go to the octave online website: https://octave-online.net/ Then upload your files there. and load them using load function as done with MATLAB

answered Oct 13, 2021 at 12:25

2

You don't need to download any new software. You can use Octave Online to open .m files.

answered Apr 6, 2018 at 1:51

1

If you are using the free software R, you can open the matlab files in Rstudio. Very easy!

answered Jul 29, 2020 at 10:23

0

Download Notepad++ (notepad-plus-plus.org) it opens nearly any file format and recognizes breaks, comments and does all the same color coding as the original language formatting.

answered Jan 27, 2020 at 18:36

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