External Interfaces/API

Using MATLAB as a Client

For MATLAB to act as a client application, you can use the MATLAB DDE client functions to establish and maintain conversations.

This figure illustrates how MATLAB communicates as a client to a server application.

The MATLAB DDE client module includes a set of functions. This table describes the functions that enable you to use MATLAB as a client.

Function	Description
ddeadv	Sets up advisory link between MATLAB and DDE server application.
ddeexec	Sends execution string to DDE server application.
ddeinit	Initiates DDE conversation between MATLAB and another application.
ddepoke	Sends data from MATLAB to DDE server application.
ddereq	Requests data from DDE server application.
ddeterm	Terminates DDE conversation between MATLAB and server application.
ddeunadv	Releases advisory link between MATLAB and DDE server application.

If the server application is Microsoft Excel, you can specify the System topic or a topic that is a filename. If you specify the latter, the filename ends in .XLS or .XLC and includes the full path if necessary. A Microsoft Excel item is a cell reference, which can be an individual cell or a range of cells.

Microsoft Word for Windows topics are System and document names that are stored in files whose names end in .DOC or .DOT. A Word for Windows item is any bookmark in the document specified by the topic.

The following example is an M-file that establishes a DDE conversation with Microsoft Excel, and then passes a 20-by-20 matrix of data to Excel:

• % Initialize conversation with Excel.
  chan = ddeinit('excel', 'Sheet1');
  
  % Create a surface of peaks plot.
  h = surf(peaks(20));
  % Get the z data of the surface
  z = get(h, 'zdata');
  
  % Set range of cells in Excel for poking.
  range = 'r1c1:r20c20';
  
  % Poke the z data to the Excel spread sheet.
  rc = ddepoke(chan, range, z);
  

Example: Using Visual Basic and the MATLAB DDE Server

DDE Advisory Links