table

Methods

⌂ table

Method Reference: table.table2ods

table: table2ods (tbl, file)
table: table2ods (tbl, file, Name, Value)

Write a table to an OpenDocument spreadsheet file.

table2ods (tbl, file) writes the table tbl to file, which may be a character vector, a cellstr, or a string scalar. When file ends in .ods a compressed (ZIP-packaged) OpenDocument spreadsheet is written; when it ends in .fods a flat (single-XML) OpenDocument spreadsheet is written instead. The resulting file can be read back with ods2table.

The data sheet (named Sheet1 by default) carries one natively typed cell per value, and a hidden __datatypes_meta__ sheet carries the variable types, names, descriptions, and units needed to restore the exact Octave types on read-back. Variables map to ODS cell types as follows:

  • Numeric variables become float cells and logical variables become boolean cells. Integers are written with their exact digits.
  • datetime variables become native date cells and duration variables become native time cells, both encoded as ISO 8601 strings.
  • Character, cellstr, string, categorical, and calendarDuration variables become string cells.
  • A multicolumn variable is split into consecutive columns that share the same variable name.

Missing values (NaN, NaT, and missing strings) are written as empty cells. When tbl has row names they are written under a leading RowNames column. Variable descriptions and units are written whenever any variable has a non-empty description or unit, respectively (the others are left empty). A zone-aware datetime variable keeps its TimeZone on read-back.

table2ods (…, 'Sheet', name) writes to a sheet named name (default 'Sheet1'). When file already exists the named sheet is added or replaced while every other sheet is preserved, so a workbook can be built up one table at a time. table2ods (…, 'WriteMode', mode) selects the behaviour: 'overwritesheet' / 'inplace' replace the sheet (the default when the sheet exists), 'append' appends the table’s rows to it, and 'replacefile' discards any existing file.

Nested tables and structures are not supported and raise an error. Note the following round-trip limitations when reading the file back with ods2table: calendarDuration and categorical variables are returned as cell arrays of character vectors (their values are not reconstructed), and datetime and duration display formats are not preserved, although the values themselves are exact.

Source Code: table

Example: 1

table2ods writes a table to an OpenDocument spreadsheet, one natively typed cell per value. The data lands on Sheet1 by default.

 Age = [38; 43; 40];
 Height = [71; 69; 64];
 T = table (Age, Height)
T =
  3x2 table

    Age    Height    
    ___    ______    

     38        71    
     43        69    
     40        64
 filename = fullfile (tempdir (), 'patients.ods');
 table2ods (T, filename);
 ods2table (filename)
ans =
  3x2 table

    Age    Height    
    ___    ______    

     38        71    
     43        69    
     40        64

Example: 2

Writing to a named 'Sheet' of an existing workbook adds or replaces just that sheet, leaving the others intact — so several tables can share one file.

 filename = fullfile (tempdir (), 'workbook.ods');
 table2ods (table ([38; 43], 'VariableNames', {'Age'}), filename, 'Sheet', 'Patients');
 table2ods (table ([1; 2; 3], 'VariableNames', {'Visit'}), filename, 'Sheet', 'Visits');
 ods2table (filename, 'Sheet', 'Visits')
ans =
  3x1 table

    Visit    
    _____    

        1    
        2    
        3
 delete (filename);