readtable does not like umlauts in file name

Since R2016 I am not able to open a file with readtable when it contains a german umlaut:

ex =

MException with properties:

identifier: 'MATLAB:spreadsheet:book:fileOpen'

message: 'Unable to open file '/xxxx/Übersichtsliste_Test.xlsm' as a workbook. Check that the file exists, read access is available, and the file is a valid spreadsheet file.'

cause: {0×1 cell}

stack: [3×1 struct]

K>> ex.stack(1)

ans =

struct with fields:

file: '/xxxxx/R2018b/toolbox/matlab/iofun/readtable.m'

name: 'readtable'

line: 216

With R2015b it works.

Do I miss something?

Answer 1

[Sihui Liu]

Hi Corinna,

I understand that you are having trouble importing a file with readtable.

However, I couldn't reproduce your issue on R2016a or R2016b from my end. Here is what I tried:

• Create an excel file, named as 'Übersichtsliste_Test.xlsm';
• saved it on my desktop;
• excuted readtable('Übersichtsliste_Test.xlsm')

Note that readtable imported data in my file correctly.

Please make sure that the file path is correct.

[Corinna von Montigny]

I forgot to mention, that I am running Matlab on a Linux PC. Maybe this makes a difference?

Here is what I did (I used R2018b):

K>> version('-release')
ans =
    '2018b'
K>> exist('Übersichtsliste_Test.xlsm')
ans =
     2
K>> readtable('Übersichtsliste_Test.xlsm');
Error using readtable (line 216)
Unable to open file
'/proj/xxxx/060_testing/nastran_2016_11_15/glw1/Übersichtsliste_Test.xlsm' as a workbook.
Check that the file exists, read access is available, and the file is a valid spreadsheet file.
K>> [c, ~] = xlsread('Übersichtsliste_Test.xlsm', 'B:B');

Note that xlsread can read the file.

Wenn I rename the file to "Uebersichtsliste_Test.xlsm" then it works:

K>> readtable('Uebersichtsliste_Test.xlsm');
Warning: Variable names were modified to make them valid MATLAB identifiers. The original names are saved in the
VariableDescriptions property. 

Is there anything to consider with respect to encoding? These are my locale settings:

K>> system('locale')
LANG=de_DE
LC_CTYPE="de_DE"
LC_NUMERIC=POSIX
LC_TIME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MONETARY=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES=en_US.UTF-8
LC_PAPER=en_US.UTF-8
LC_NAME=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=en_US.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=en_US.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=en_US.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=en_US.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

[Corinna von Montigny]

I just tried this again with R2019b. No difference. I can not read a .xlsm File with 'readtable' which has an umlaut in its filename.

I am running Matlab on a Linux PC.

[Stephen23]

Is the path to the file correct?

[Guillaume]

Can you fopen the file in matlab? It won't help at all with the actual import but it would tell us if the problem is specific to readtable or more with general IO in matlab.

[Corinna von Montigny]

The path to the file is correct. As I can read the file without problems with 'xlsread'.

>> fopen('Übersicht.xlsm')

ans =

3

I just opened a bug report w/r to this. Sorry, I do not remember the ticket number.

[Guillaume]

So it is restricted to readtable. Raising a bug report is probably the best way to get the issue resolved.