如何将数字作为字符串写入Excel文件？

Question

I have a cell array in MATLAB which contains numeric data stored as a string. I would like to maintain this string format when I export the file. However, when I use xlswrite , Excel automatically converts these to double values. Does anyone know how to prevent this?

Here's an example of what I have written:

    C = {'123'};
    xlswrite('example.xls', C);

When I check the file, "123" is stored as a number. Specifically, I can perform arithmetic operations on it.

Answer 1

Insert a single quotation in front of each number before writing to file. The single quotation at the beginning informs Excel that you wish to input a string regardless of its contents:

C = {'''123'};
xlswrite('example.xls', C);

You need to use two ' characters to symbolize a single quote to ensure MATLAB doesn't ambiguously think that you're trying to start a string... so to be sure we're on the same page:

C =  {'''123');
      |||   |
      abb   a

a denotes the starting and ending of the string and b denotes the declaration of a single quotation.