MATLAB standalone program data source

I have built a MATLAB standalone program. The original MATLAB program is supposed to import data from an excel file named P2.xlsx. After converting it to Standalone, if in change values in P2.xlsx, the output does not change.

How can I make it work?

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

I suspect that you had a file by that name when you built the executable, and that the file got bundled with the executable and is the one being used.

You should read about ctfroot()

Executables do not generally look in the current directory for files. Well, they do, but they look in ctfroot first, and the current directory is seldom where you expect. Standalone executables operate as graphics programs opened by Windows, and so there is no way for them to pick up the user's current directory because there is a different current directory for every graphics program.

[Seum Bin Rahman]

Great! Thanks a lot.

Can you pls tell me where I can get this ctfroot, or is there any way to change my values?

[Walter Roberson]

https://www.mathworks.com/help/compiler/ctfroot.html

[Walter Roberson]

Generally you should proceed one of a few ways:

1. uigetfile to interact with the user to select the file. Flexible but not always as convenient
2. uigetfile but then use setpref to record the location so that next time you can retrieve it. I am not sure if the preferences would be cleared if the expanded ctf is removed
3. use windows environment variables to locate the user's home directory or application directory and store the files there. Beware that not all users have their home directory on C:, especially in a networked environment.
4. hardcode the path to the file. This gets risky as different environments use different directory structures.