How Do You Use MATLAB with Excel?

When it comes to data analysis and visualization, technical professionals who use Excel^® often encounter functional limitations. MATLAB^® supplements the capabilities of Excel by providing access to prebuilt mathematical and analysis functions, visualization tools, and the ability to automate your analysis workflows.

3 ways to use MATLAB and Excel together:

• Import Excel data into MATLAB
• Access MATLAB from Excel
• Package MATLAB code as Excel add-ins

Import Excel Data into MATLAB

The Import Tool makes it easy to bring data from an Excel spreadsheet into MATLAB. It shows the data both as it exists in Excel and how it will be represented in MATLAB, and recommends the best format for the data in MATLAB. Data import can be integrated into an automated analysis workflow in MATLAB, either by using code automatically generated by the Import Tool, or by calling MATLAB commands readtable and xlsread directly.

Excel data is naturally represented in MATLAB as a table, which organizes tabular data into columns of a single variable.

Access MATLAB from Excel

Spreadsheet Link™ connects Excel with the MATLAB workspace, enabling you to access the MATLAB environment from an Excel spreadsheet. You can exchange data between MATLAB and Excel, taking advantage of the familiar Excel interface while gaining access to MATLAB algorithms in image processing, data analytics, and control engineering.

Package MATLAB Code as Excel Add-ins

With MATLAB Compiler™, you can package math, graphics, and user interfaces created in MATLAB as Excel add-ins to perform analyses with Excel. These Excel add-ins can be distributed royalty-free to users who do not have MATLAB, and require no VBA programming.

With the addition of MATLAB Compiler SDK™, you can deploy add-ins to MATLAB Production Server™ for multiple Excel clients to access your MATLAB algorithms. This deployment ensures that users access the latest version of your analytics automatically with updates made to the algorithms deployed on the server.