--- /dev/null
+## Copyright (C) 2009,2010,2011,2012 by Philip Nienhuis <prnienhuis at users.sf.net>
+##
+## This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
+## the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
+## Foundation; either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later
+## version.
+##
+## This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT
+## ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or
+## FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more
+## details.
+##
+## You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
+## this program; if not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+
+## -*- texinfo -*-
+## @deftypefn {Function File} [@var{numarr}, @var{txtarr}, @var{rawarr}, @var{limits}] = xlsread (@var{filename})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} [@var{numarr}, @var{txtarr}, @var{rawarr}, @var{limits}] = xlsread (@var{filename}, @var{wsh})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} [@var{numarr}, @var{txtarr}, @var{rawarr}, @var{limits}] = xlsread (@var{filename}, @var{range})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} [@var{numarr}, @var{txtarr}, @var{rawarr}, @var{limits}] = xlsread (@var{filename}, @var{wsh}, @var{range})
+## @deftypefnx {Function File} [@var{numarr}, @var{txtarr}, @var{rawarr}, @var{limits}] = xlsread (@var{filename}, @var{wsh}, @var{range}, @var{reqintf})
+##
+## Read data contained in range @var{range} from worksheet @var{wsh}
+## in Excel spreadsheet file @var{filename}.
+## Return argument @var{numarr} contains the numeric data, optional
+## return arguments @var{txtarr} and @var{rawarr} contain text strings
+## and the raw spreadsheet cell data, respectively. Return argument
+## @var{limits} contains the outer column/row numbers of the read
+## spreadsheet range where @var{numarr}, @var{txtarr} and @var{rawarr}
+## have come from (remember, xlsread trims outer rows and columns).
+##
+## If @var{filename} does not contain any directory, the file is
+## assumed to be in the current directory. The filename extension
+## (.xls or .xlsx) must be included in the file name; when using the
+## COM interface all file formats can be read that are supported by the
+## locally installed MS-Excel version (e.g., wk1, csv, dbf, etc.).
+##
+## @var{range} is expected to be a regular spreadsheet range format,
+## or "" (empty string, indicating all data in a worksheet).
+## If no range is specified the occupied cell range will have to be
+## determined behind the scenes first; this can take some time for the
+## Java-based interfaces (but the results may be more reliable than
+## that of ActiveX/COM).
+##
+## @var{wsh} is either numerical or text; in the latter case it is
+## case-sensitive and it may be max. 31 characters long.
+## Note that in case of a numerical @var{wsh} this number refers to the
+## position in the worksheet stack, counted from the left in an Excel
+## window. The default is numerical 1, i.e. the leftmost worksheet
+## in the Excel file.
+##
+## If only the first argument is specified, xlsread will try to read
+## all contents (as if a range of @'' (empty string) was specified)
+## from the first = leftmost (or the only) worksheet
+##
+## If only two arguments are specified, xlsread assumes the second
+## argument to be @var{range} if it is a string argument and contains
+## a ":" or if it is @'' (empty string), and in those cases assumes
+## the data must be read from the first worksheet (not necessarily
+## Sheet1! but the leftmost sheet).
+##
+## However, if only two arguments are specified and the second argument
+## is numeric or a text string that does not contain a ":", it is
+## assumed to be @var{wsh} and to refer to a worksheet. In that case
+## xlsread tries to read all data contained in that worksheet.
+##
+## The optional last argument @var{reqintf} can be used to override
+## the automatic interface selection by xlsread out of the supported
+## ones: COM/Excel, Java/Apache POI, Java/JExcelAPI, Java/OpenXLS, or
+## Java/UNO (OpenOffice.org) (in that -built in- order of preference).
+## For reading from OOXML files a value of 'com', 'poi' or 'uno' must
+## be specified for @var{reqintf} (see help for xlsopen); for Excel'95
+## files use 'com', or if Excel is not installed use 'jxl', 'basic'
+## or 'uno' (POI can't read Excel 95 but will try to fall back to JXL).
+## As @var{reqintf} can also be a cell array of strings, one can
+## select or exclude one or more interfaces.
+##
+## Erroneous data and empty cells are set to NaN in @var{numarr} and
+## turn up empty in @var{txtarr} and @var{rawarr}. Date/time values in
+## Excel are returned as numerical values in @var{numarr}. Note that
+## Excel and Octave have different date base values (1/1/1900 &
+## 1/1/0000, resp.). Spreadsheet date values lying before 1/1/1900 are
+## returned as strings, formatted as they appear in the spreadsheet.
+## @var{numarr} and @var{txtarr} are trimmed from empty outer rows
+## and columns. Be aware that Excel does the same for @var{rawarr},
+## so any returned array may turn out to be smaller than requested in
+## @var{range}.
+##
+## When reading from merged cells, all array elements NOT corresponding
+## to the leftmost or upper Excel cell will be treated as if the
+## "corresponding" Excel cells are empty.
+##
+## xlsread is just a wrapper for a collection of scripts that find out
+## the interface to be used (COM, Java/POI, Java/JXL Java/OXS, Java/UNO)
+## and do the actual reading. For each call to xlsread the interface must
+## be started and the Excel file read into memory. When reading multiple
+## ranges (in optionally multiple worksheets) a significant speed boost
+## can be obtained by invoking those scripts directly as in:
+## xlsopen / xls2oct [/ parsecell] / ... / xlsclose
+##
+## Beware: when using the COM interface, hidden Excel invocations may be
+## kept running silently if not closed explicitly.
+##
+## Examples:
+##
+## @example
+## A = xlsread ('test4.xls', '2nd_sheet', 'C3:AB40');
+## (which returns the numeric contents in range C3:AB40 in worksheet
+## '2nd_sheet' from file test4.xls into numeric array A)
+## @end example
+##
+## @example
+## [An, Tn, Ra, limits] = xlsread ('Sales2009.xls', 'Third_sheet');
+## (which returns all data in worksheet 'Third_sheet' in file 'Sales2009.xls'
+## into array An, the text data into array Tn, the raw cell data into
+## cell array Ra and the ranges from where the actual data came in limits)
+## @end example
+##
+## @example
+## numarr = xlsread ('Sales2010.xls', 4, [], @{'JXL', 'COM'@});
+## (Read all data from 4th worksheet in file Sales2010.xls using either JXL
+## or COM interface (i.e, exclude POI interface).
+## @end example
+##
+## @seealso {xlswrite, xlsopen, xls2oct, xlsclose, xlsfinfo, oct2xls}
+##
+## @end deftypefn
+
+## Author: Philip Nienhuis
+## Created: 2009-10-16
+## Updates:
+## 2009-12-29 bug fixes
+## 2010-01-12 added unwind_protect to get rid of stray Excel invocations i.c.o. COM errors
+## 2010-05-31 Updated help text (delays i.c.o. empty range due to getusedrange call)
+## 2010-08-18 Added check for existence of xls after call to xlsopen to
+## '' avoid unneeded error message clutter
+## 2010-08-25 Improved help text, esp. sections Excel file types and interfaces
+## 2010-10-20 Dropped wiping xls.limits for COM (nowadays COM can return those)
+## 2010-10-21 Formally added 'BASIC' option as synonym for 'JXL'
+## 2010-11-05 Updated help text
+## 2010-11-13 Added some input checks
+## 2011-04-11 Return upon empty xls struct from xlsopen()
+## 2011-04-17 Suppress xlsopen messages (";" was missing)
+## 2011-09-08 Minor code cleanup; included UNO & OXS support in test
+## 2012-01-26 Fixed "seealso" help string
+## 2012-03-07 Updated texinfo help header
+
+function [ numarr, txtarr, rawarr, lims ] = xlsread (fn, wsh, datrange, reqintf=[])
+
+ rstatus = 0;
+
+ if (nargout < 1)
+ usage ("xlsread: no output argument(s) specified that should receive data");
+ endif
+ if (nargin < 1)
+ error ("xlsread: no input arguments specified")
+ numarr = []; txtarr={}; rawarr = {};
+ return
+ elseif (nargin == 1)
+ wsh = 1;
+ datrange = '';
+ elseif (nargin == 2)
+ # Find out whether 2nd argument = worksheet or range
+ if (isnumeric (wsh) || (isempty (findstr (wsh,':')) && ~isempty (wsh)))
+ # Apparently a worksheet specified
+ datrange = '';
+ else
+ # Range specified
+ datrange = wsh;
+ wsh = 1;
+ endif
+ endif
+
+ # A small gesture for Matlab compatibility. JExcelAPI supports BIFF5.
+ if (~isempty (reqintf) && ischar (reqintf) && strcmpi (reqintf, 'BASIC'))
+ reqintf= {"JXL"} ;
+ printf ("(BASIC (BIFF5) support request translated to JXL.) \n");
+ endif
+
+ # Checks done. Get raw data into cell array "rawarr". xlsopen finds out
+ # what interface to use. If none found, just return as xlsopen will complain enough
+
+ unwind_protect # Needed to catch COM errors & able to close stray Excel invocations
+ # Get pointer array to Excel file
+ xls_ok = 0;
+ xls = xlsopen (fn, 0, reqintf);
+ if (~isempty (xls))
+ xls_ok = 1;
+ else
+ return
+ endif
+
+# if (strcmp (xls.xtype, 'COM') || strcmp (xls.xtype, 'POI') || strcmp (xls.xtype, 'JXL')...
+# || strcmp (xls.xtype, 'OXS') || strcmp (xls.xtype, 'UNO'))
+
+ # Get data from Excel file & return handle
+ [rawarr, xls, rstatus] = xls2oct (xls, wsh, datrange);
+
+ # Save some results before xls is wiped
+ rawlimits = xls.limits;
+ xtype = xls.xtype;
+
+ if (rstatus)
+ [numarr, txtarr, lims] = parsecell (rawarr, rawlimits);
+ else
+ rawarr = {}; numarr = []; txtarr = {};
+ endif
+
+# else
+# printf ("Error XLSREAD: reading EXCEL file (BIFF- or OOXML Format) isn\'t supported on this system.\n");
+# printf ("You need to convert the file into a tab- or comma delimited text file or .csv file\n");
+# printf ("and then invoke csvread(), dlmread() or textread()\n\n");
+#
+# endif
+
+ unwind_protect_cleanup
+ # Close Excel file
+ if (xls_ok) xls = xlsclose (xls); endif
+
+ end_unwind_protect
+
+endfunction