Re: Error reading .xlsx file using io

[jmb]

On 10/21/2014 01:16 PM, Philip Nienhuis wrote:
> jmb-2 wrote
>> I am trying to read an MS-Excel spreadsheet (which unfortunately is
>> proprietary info) that results in the following error message:
>>
>> octave:1> pkg load io;
>>      octave:2> A = xlsread ("File1.xlsx", 'First_Table', 'A5:Y67');
>>      Detected XLS interfaces: error: cell2mat: C is not a cell array
>>      error: called from:
>>      error:   /opt/octave3.8/share/octave/3.8.1/m/general/cell2mat.m at line
>> 36, column 5
>>      error:   /home/.../octave/io-2.2.4/private/__OCT_xlsx2oct__.m at line
>> 237, column 14
>>      error:   /home/.../octave/io-2.2.4/xls2oct.m at line 210, column 27
>>      error:   /home/.../octave/io-2.2.4/xlsread.m at line 214, column 25
>>
>> The "File1.xlsx" spreadsheet was created using MS-Excel 2010, by
>> somebody else.
>>
>> The pertinent version info:
>>
>>      octave:2> version
>>      ans = 3.8.1
>>      octave:3> pkg list
>>      Package Name    | Version | Installation directory
>>      ----------------+---------+-----------------------
>>                 io *|   2.2.4 | /home/.../octave/io-2.2.4
>>
>>      lsb_release -a
>>      Description:    Ubuntu 12.04.5 LTS
>>
>>      uname -a
>>      Linux ... 3.5.0-55-generic #82~precise1-Ubuntu SMP Tue Sep 16 06:26:39
>> UTC 2014 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
>>
>> However, I can provide one clue.  If I open the same spreadsheet using
>> LibreOffice calc Version 3.5.7.2 Build ID 350m1(Build:2) and save it as
>> a different file named "File2.xlsx"; using the "Microsoft Excel
>> 2007/2010 XML (.xlsx)" format, then:
>>      octave:3> A = xlsread ("File2.xlsx", 'First_Table', 'A5:Y67');
>> This works just fine!
>>
>> Has anybody encountered such a problem or have clues as to what is
>> wrong.  I tried somewhat to debug it but I got lost in how line 237 of
>> __OCT_xlsx2oct__.m & line 36 of cell2mat.m work... :)
>>
>> Apparently, the decoding of the .../xl/worksheet/Sheet1.xml file is
>> getting clobbered.
>>
>> My workaround has been to export the MS-Excel file to a .csv file and
>> use textread, but I was trying to read the .xlsx file directly.
>>
>> Thanks for any help/fix that may be advised.
> Without an example file showing the bug there's little to say about the
> cause.
>
> However, in the last weeks several bugs have been fixed with the OCT
> interface (the spreadsheet I/O interface that works w/o Java). See esp. bug
> #43331 on the bug tracker; you can d/ld the patched file from the repo and
> try again.
>
> The fixes will be part of io-2.2.5 to be released within one or two weeks, I
> hope.
>
> As you wrote, Excel itself is very picky. 
> If your Octave version has been built with Java support (if 
> octave_config_info ("features").JAVA
> returns  1)
> you can also try the UNO interface (that'll invoke LibreOffice rather than
> the OCT interface code).
> The function chk_spreadsheet_support can help to setup the javaclasspath:
> chk_spreadsheet_support ('', 3,
> '/full/path/to/LibreOffice/installation/directory')
> (note consecutive single quotes for 1st argument, argument 2 ("3") regulates
> the verbosity, 3 = max).
>
> Philip
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Hello Phillip,

Thank you for the quick help.  Let me see if I can create another
non-proprietary .xlsx file that exhibits a similar problem & I will
attach that in a few days time.

Regards, JMB