Copy MATLAB® tables to the clipboard for pasting into Excel® or any text-based application
Example 1 - use with regular table
Example 3 - tables with different precision
Example 4 - use with timetable
Example 5 - use with eventtable
Example 6 - applying custom delimiters
Example 7 - controlling whether table headers are included
MATLAB provides functions for exporting tabular data to files, but there is currently no built-in way to copy the contents of a table directly to the system clipboard for use in other applications. Saving a table as a temporary file is time consuming when the goal is simply to move results from MATLAB into a spreadsheet, email, or document.
copytable fills that gap by allowing a MATLAB table, timetable, eventtable, or uitable to be copied directly to the clipboard in a single command. The resulting text can be pasted into Excel, emails, markdown files, spreadsheets, and other applications without creating temporary files.
Unlike MATLAB's clipboard function, copytable accepts table-based data structures directly and automatically formats mixed-type tabular data for copying and pasting.
This utility is particularly useful for:
- App Designer™ applications that display data in a
uitable - Sharing analysis results with colleagues
- Copying data to a markdown file using the | delimiter
- Quickly exporting datasets to Excel
- Exporting tabular data without creating temporary files
The input arguments to copytable are as follows:
- Required: The table to be copied
- Optional: The delimiter to be used. Input must be text scalar.
- Optional: Whether you want to include row headers. Input must be a logical scalar (i.e.,
trueorfalse).
Some additional capabilities are:
- Supports the MATLAB
table,timetable,eventtable, anduitableobjects - Preserves full numeric precision
- Handles mixed data types within the same table
- Automatically generates column headers if included
- Requires no toolboxes beyond MATLAB
Supported scalar data types include:
- Numeric (real and complex)
- Logical
- String
- Character vectors
- Datetime
- Duration
- Calendar duration
- Categorical
- Function handles
- Categorical
- Cell (see limitations)
- Generate or display table data in MATLAB.
- Call
copytablewith the table as the input argument with optional arguments for the delimiter type and whether to include headers. - Switch to Excel.
- Paste using Ctrl+V.
- Each table entry must be scalar. Non-scalar entries such as vectors, matrices, objects, or multidimensional arrays are not supported.
- Nested tables and other complex container objects such as cells are not supported.
- Cells containing nonscalar values cannot be copied.
- Row names are not copied.
- Variable units are not copied.
For example:
unsupportedTable = table([1 2;3 4]);
try
copytable(unsupportedTable) %this should error as variables are not scalar
catch ME
disp(ME.identifier)
endcopytable:InvalidTableSize
- MATLAB
R2024a through R2026a. Untested in earlier versions.
LastName = ["Sanchez";"Johnson";"Li";"Diaz";"Brown"];
Age = [38;43;38;40;49];
Smoker = logical([1;0;1;0;1]);
Height = [71;69;64;67;64];
Weight = [176;163;131;133;119];
T = table(LastName,Age,Smoker,Height,Weight);
disp(T) LastName Age Smoker Height Weight
_________ ___ ______ ______ ______
"Sanchez" 38 true 71 176
"Johnson" 43 false 69 163
"Li" 38 true 64 131
"Diaz" 40 false 67 133
"Brown" 49 true 64 119
copytable(T)
clipboard('paste') %or paste in Excelans =
'LastName,Age,Smoker,Height,Weight
Sanchez,38,true,71,176
Johnson,43,false,69,163
Li,38,true,64,131
Diaz,40,false,67,133
Brown,49,true,64,119'
dataCell = {'John', 25, 68.5; 'Sarah', 30, 72.0};
fig = uifigure;
uit = uitable(fig,'Data', dataCell, 'ColumnName', {'Name', 'Age', 'Weight'});
pause(1) %ensure figure and uitable load
copytable(uit)
delete(fig)
clipboard('paste') %or paste in Excelans =
'Name,Age,Weight
John,25,68.5
Sarah,30,72'
defaultPi = pi*[1;2;3];
piInt = int8(defaultPi);
piHalf = half(defaultPi);
piSingle = single(defaultPi);
piDouble = double(defaultPi)*1;
piFormulas = {@(circ,diam)circ/diam; @(A,r) 2*A/r^2; @(V,r) V/r^3*9/4};
piTable = table(piInt,piHalf,piSingle,piDouble,piFormulas);
disp(piTable) piInt piHalf piSingle piDouble piFormulas
_____ ______ ________ ________ _______________________
3 3.1406 3.1416 3.1416 {@(circ,diam)circ/diam}
6 6.2812 6.2832 6.2832 { @(A,r)2*A/r^2}
9 9.4219 9.4248 9.4248 { @(V,r)V/r^3*9/4}
copytable(piTable)
clipboard('paste') %or paste in Excelans =
'piInt,piHalf,piSingle,piDouble,piFormulas
3,3.1406,3.1415927,3.141592653589793,"@(circ,diam)circ/diam"
6,6.2812,6.2831855,6.283185307179586,"@(A,r)2*A/r^2"
9,9.4219,9.424778,9.424777960769379,"@(V,r)V/r^3*9/4"'
MeasurementTime = datetime(["2015-12-18 08:03:05";"2015-12-18 10:03:17";"2015-12-18 12:03:13"]);
Temp = [37.3;39.1;42.3];
Pressure = [30.1;30.03;29.9];
WindSpeed = [13.4;6.5;7.3];
TT = timetable(MeasurementTime,Temp,Pressure,WindSpeed);
disp(TT) MeasurementTime Temp Pressure WindSpeed
____________________ ____ ________ _________
18-Dec-2015 08:03:05 37.3 30.1 13.4
18-Dec-2015 10:03:17 39.1 30.03 6.5
18-Dec-2015 12:03:13 42.3 29.9 7.3
copytable(TT)
clipboard('paste') %or paste in Excelans =
'MeasurementTime,Temp,Pressure,WindSpeed
18-Dec-2015 08:03:05,37.3,30.1,13.4
18-Dec-2015 10:03:17,39.1,30.03,6.5
18-Dec-2015 12:03:13,42.3,29.9,7.3'
Time = datetime(2022,11,[3 5 10 14]);
labels = ["Hail","Rain","Snow","Rain"];
lengths = hours([1.2 36 18 20]);
ET = eventtable(Time,EventLabels=labels,EventLengths=lengths);
disp(ET) Time EventLabels EventLengths
___________ ___________ ____________
03-Nov-2022 "Hail" 1.2 hr
05-Nov-2022 "Rain" 36 hr
10-Nov-2022 "Snow" 18 hr
14-Nov-2022 "Rain" 20 hr
copytable(ET)
clipboard('paste') %or paste in Excelans =
'Time,EventLabels,EventLengths
03-Nov-2022,Hail,1.2 hr
05-Nov-2022,Rain,36 hr
10-Nov-2022,Snow,18 hr
14-Nov-2022,Rain,20 hr'
Change the delimiter from the default "," to the tab delimiter "\t".
Data = [-10-3i; 3+4i; 30];
rowTimes = (calmonths(1:3))';
tabTable = table(rowTimes, Data);
disp(tabTable) rowTimes Data
________ ______
1mo -10-3i
2mo 3+4i
3mo 30+0i
copytable(tabTable,'\t')
clipboard('paste')ans =
'rowTimes Data
1mo -10-3i
2mo 3+4i
3mo 30'
The default value to copy the table header is set to true. Set this value to false to omit the header.
Mixed = {42; "abc"; datetime(2025,1,1)};
Value = [1;2;3];
T = table(Mixed,Value);
disp(T) Mixed Value
_______________ _____
{[ 42]} 1
{["abc" ]} 2
{[01-Jan-2025]} 3
copytable(T,"|",false)
clipboard('paste')ans =
'42|1
abc|2
01-Jan-2025|3'
To get a baseline of performance, use copytable on a table containing 1 variable (column) with multiple rows. The runtime performance is proportional to the total number of copied values rather than number of columns or rows. It is faster if the data type being copied is not a cell because the function would need to check each individual cell for correctness which affects runtime performance.
numberOfRowsArray = ceil(logspace(1,6,10));
timingVector = zeros(size(numberOfRowsArray));
counter = 1;
for ii = 1:numel(numberOfRowsArray)
numberOfRows = numberOfRowsArray(ii);
dataRow = string(rand(numberOfRows,1));
tableRow = table(dataRow);
timingVector(counter) = timeit(@() copytable(tableRow));
counter = counter + 1;
end
plot(numberOfRowsArray,timingVector,'o-')
xscale log
xlabel('Number of Rows Copied')
ylabel('Time (seconds)')
title('copytable Performance')