How to check if excel is installed?

Hello,

My script writes to an xls file. I am packaging this as an app to pass onto others to use. However it occurred to me that it could be possible that they don't have excel. I was wondering if there was a way for matlab to check if you have excel installed before writing/opening an excel file.

Thanks

Answer 1

[Walter Roberson]

Look at the code for xlswrite, which does

try
    Excel = matlab.io.internal.getExcelInstance;

catch exception %#ok<NASGU>
    warning(message('MATLAB:xlswrite:NoCOMServer'));

[Noah Kilps]

Just now had the chance to get back to this. Thanks, Walter. Do you happen to know what

matlab.io.internal.getExcelInstance

will output if you do not have the application?

[Walter Roberson]

It will error in ActiveX attempt, which is why the try/catch