Pass Data to MATLAB from Python

When you pass Python^® data as input arguments to MATLAB^® functions, the MATLAB Engine API for Python converts the data into equivalent MATLAB data types.

Python Type to MATLAB Scalar Type Mapping

This table shows how MATLAB converts incoming Python scalar data to MATLAB data types.

Python Input Argument Type — Scalar Values Only	Resulting MATLAB Data Type
float	double
complex	Complex double
int	int64
float(nan)	NaN
float(inf)	Inf
bool	logical
str	char
dict	struct if all keys are strings Not supported otherwise
matlab.dictionary	dictionary MATLAB converts the data in a matlab.dictionary object using the mappings in this table, with the exception that str data is converted to string.
Python objects (other than dict) that support the mapping protocol	dictionary

Python Container to MATLAB Array Type Mapping

This tables shows how MATLAB converts incoming Python container data to MATLAB data types.

Python Input Argument Type — Container	Resulting MATLAB Data Type
matlab numeric array object (see MATLAB Arrays as Python Variables)	Numeric array
bytearray	uint8 array
bytes	uint8 array
list	Cell array
set	Cell array
tuple	Cell array

Unsupported Python Types

The MATLAB Engine API does not support these Python types:

• Python class (module.type) objects

• None

Related Topics

• Handle Data Returned from MATLAB to Python
• Default Numeric Types in MATLAB and Python
• MATLAB Arrays as Python Variables