How do I get the raw 'xlsread' cell array format when transitioning to readtable/​readcell/r​eadmatrix?

I am trying to replace all 'xlsread' functions in my code with the new readtable/readcell/readmatrix functions. I would like the resulting output to be in the same format as when I was using 'xlsread'.

The 'xlsread' function had the following syntax:

[num,txt,raw] = xlsread(___)

How do I get output equivalent to the raw output of 'xlsread', meaning that it needs to be in cell array format, not double. 'readtable' or 'readmatrix' save as double and put NaN whenever there are non-numeric data.

Answer 1

[MathWorks Support Team]

When switching from 'xlsread', there are now three functions that can be used to import from Excel sheets as well as other file formats: 'readcell', 'readmatrix' and 'readtable'.

The 'readcell' option produces an output closest to the 'raw' output parameter of 'xlsread'. 'readcell' should be used for the case where the data in the file is completely mixed. It will bring data in as text if it cannot otherwise be converted to a number, datetime, or duration.

https://www.mathworks.com/help/matlab/ref/readcell.html

In addition, the other replacement functions should be used in the following situations:

• The function 'readmatrix' should be used if all the data is of the same type.
• The 'readtable' function makes use of the "Table" data type, which we recommend for cases where there are multiple rows of data where each has multiple heterogeneous fields, but each of those fields has a consistent datatype. 

[Julian Hapke]

I think there should be an option to force readcell to read everything as char / string.