Got an error when using cell2csv in Matlab 2014b version

The error message is the following

Undefined function 'cell2csv' for input arguments of type 'cell'.

My Matlab code: cell2csv(fileName, aCellInstance);

Can you help to see if I used it in the wrong way or the function is not available in 2014b.

Thanks!

Simon

Answer 1

[Abhishek GS]

Simon,

cell2csv is not a MATLAB built in function. But if you want to write a cell array into a comma separated value text, you could use some of the files from MATLAB Central which can be found here , here , here and here .

Answer 2

[Konstantinos Sofos]

Hi Simon, As Abhishek mentioned cell2csv is not a MATLAB built in function. You can use something from MATLAB file exchange e.g.

function cell2csv(filename,cellArray,delimiter)
% Writes cell array content into a *.csv file.
% 
% CELL2CSV(filename,cellArray,delimiter)
%
% filename      = Name of the file to save. [ i.e. 'text.csv' ]
% cellarray    = Name of the Cell Array where the data is in
% delimiter = seperating sign, normally:',' (it's default)
%
% by Sylvain Fiedler, KA, 2004
% modified by Rob Kohr, Rutgers, 2005 - changed to english and fixed delimiter
if nargin<3
  delimiter = ',';
end

datei = fopen(filename,'w'); for z=1:size(cellArray,1) for s=1:size(cellArray,2)

        var = eval(['cellArray{z,s}']);

        if size(var,1) == 0
            var = '';
        end

        if isnumeric(var) == 1
            var = num2str(var);
        end

        fprintf(datei,var);

        if s ~= size(cellArray,2)
            fprintf(datei,[delimiter]);
        end
    end
    fprintf(datei,'\n');
end
fclose(datei);

Example:

>> A = rand(5); >> B = num2cell(A); >> cell2csv('dummy.csv',B)

Answer 3

[Simon Wang]

Thank you very much on this. Things worked execpt that if I have a cell array of strings which happen to contain a comma (e.g. "ABC company, inc"), the function split the cell into two fields - "ABC company" and "inc" while I am expecting to have just one field. Any clue on how to resolve it? I believe this is related to the use of below command:

fprintf(datei,var);

Once it sees a comma, it will treat it as a delimiter.

Answer 4

[Konstantinos Sofos]

Hi Simon,

You could use another delimiter e.g. semicolon (";").

Initially it was to be a comma (CSV-Comma separated values), however as the comma is often used as a decimal point it wouldn't be such good separator, hence others like the semicolon.

i prefer ; since it causes less problems with decimal points, digit grouping and does not appear in much text. In windows it is dependent on the "Regional and Language Options".

Regards

Answer 5

[Simon Wang]

Thanks! It works.