NaN result from xlsread

I have a (large) excel file in which the first column is dates and the following 48 columns contain numerical data. I am reading the data using the command:

[fcp_mat,fcp_date]=xlsread('FCPWF.xlsx','a3:AW300000');

This results in fcp_date being an array of cells each containing a string of the date which is fine.

Fcp_date however sometimes has 48 columns and sometimes 49. When it contains 49 the first column is NaN, it is clearly putting the dates into the numerical variable. I suspect the problem is due to a corrupted input file but am not sure exactly what to check. If there is a single cell in the first column containing a number (eg if the date has been formatted at an excel number) would this cause the whole column to be read with the others as NaN? What about if there is a blank cell or a cell containing ‘’?

[Soumojit Shee]

'format long' solved the same in my code.

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Add the third output parameter ("raw") to the xlsread(), and examine that for the rows that are having problems.