Only first column variable gets read when generating function, Why.

it might be a basic question. I am a beginner.

When I am trying to import an excel file with 5 columns and row 1 as column header, and generating a function for doing the same, MATLAB is not generating 5 variable as per the column headers, but only one variable and that too with the default name, ans.

Kindly help.

Here is the code:

function [Date,Open,High,Low,Close] = importfile(workbookFile,sheetName,startRow,endRow)

      % If no sheet is specified, read first sheet
      if nargin == 1 || isempty(sheetName)
          sheetName = 1;
      end

      % If row start and end points are not specified, define defaults
      if nargin <= 3
          startRow = 2;
          endRow = 250;
      end

      %%Import the data, extracting spreadsheet dates in MATLAB serial date number format (datenum)
      [~, ~, raw, dateNums] = xlsread(workbookFile, sheetName, sprintf('A%d:E%d',startRow(1),endRow(1)),'' , @convertSpreadsheetDates);
      for block=2:length(startRow)
          [~, ~, tmpRawBlock,tmpDateNumBlock] = xlsread(workbookFile, sheetName, sprintf('A%d:E%d',startRow(block),endRow(block)),'' , @convertSpreadsheetDates);
          raw = [raw;tmpRawBlock]; %#ok<AGROW>
          dateNums = [dateNums;tmpDateNumBlock]; %#ok<AGROW>
      end

      %%Replace date strings by MATLAB serial date numbers (datenum)
      R = ~cellfun(@isequalwithequalnans,dateNums,raw) & cellfun('isclass',raw,'char'); % Find spreadsheet dates
      raw(R) = dateNums(R);

      %%Create output variable
      data = reshape([raw{:}],size(raw));

      %%Allocate imported array to column variable names
      Date = data(:,1);
      Open = data(:,2);
      High = data(:,3);
      Low = data(:,4);
      Close = data(:,5);

Answer 1

[Joseph Cheng]

Cursory look at the code shows no problems but it maybe how you are calling the function. How are you running the function?

if you go:

 importfile(workbookFile,sheetName,startRow,endRow)

It won't generate the 5 variables by itself. you need to go

 [Date,Open,High,Low,Close] = importfile(workbookFile,sheetName,startRow,endRow)

to assign the 5 outputs of importfile to something.

[Joseph Cheng]

Example

if i create a function

function [x y z]=testfunction(x,y,z)
 x = 2*x;
 y=3*y;
 z = z/z;

and run it by typing

 testfunction(1,2,3)

i'll get the output of ans = 2

or if i go

 [A B]=testfunction(1,2,3);

A will be = 2 and B=6, with no entry for the 3rd output.