Here's a similar example that I have:
% Copyright 2014 The MathWorks, Inc.
% Automating File Import
% Select folder containing data interactively
Location = uigetdir;
% Identify where to search for files
% Store the name of all .xls files as a vector D
D = dir([Location, '\*.xlsx']);
% Extract the file names
filenames = {D(:).name}.';
data = cell(length(D),1);
for ii = length(D):-1:1
% Create the full file name and partial filename
fullname = [Location filesep D(ii).name];
% Read in the data
data{ii} = xlsread(fullname);
end
