xlsread: why '°' isn't read correctly?

I want to read an Excel file giving me names and units of some data. There is quite a lot of units with "°" (symbol for degree) in the table and I don't get them read correctly using xlsread. If I use the 2nd return parameter of xlsread, I get '' instead of '°'. If I use the 3rd return parameter, I get [0] instead of '°'.

Is there any way to get this unit read correctly into a MATLAB string?

I have to use MATLAB R2010b.

Answer 1

[Stalin Samuel]

http://www.mathworks.in/help/matlab/ref/specialcharacters.html

[Jette]

I don't understand what you want to tell me with this link. The symbol for degree '°' does not appear in this list. And even if it would appear - what would this have to do with my problem?