How can I apply conditional formatting to an Excel spreadsheet via MATLAB?

I would like to add conditional formatting to cells based upon data computed in MATLAB. Is it possible to do this with "writetable" or ACTXSERVER?

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

As of R2020b, there is no built-in functionality to apply conditional formatting to cells via "writetable"; however, you can achieve this through ACTXSERVER as follows:

Suppose that we have a file, "data.xls" and would like to set any cell in the range "A1:J10" to read if its value is over the threshold of 5. This could be accomplished using code like:

%% Create an XLS file
data = repmat(1:10,10,1);
fname = 'data.xls';
xlswrite(fname, data);

%% Open the workbook, select a range and show Excel
Excel = actxserver('Excel.Application');
Excel.Workbooks.Open(fullfile(pwd, fname));
Range= Excel.Range('A1:J10');
Excel.Visible = 1;

%% Set the cells to red if they are over 5
valueType = 1;
operatorIndex = 5;
maxVal = 5;

Range.FormatConditions.Add(valueType, operatorIndex, maxVal).Interior.ColorIndex = 3;

%% Save and close the file
Excel.ActiveWorkbook.Save()
Excel.Quit()