Copy MATLAB® tables to the clipboard for pasting into Excel® or any text-based application

 Background

 Features

 Typical Use

 Limitations

 Toolbox Requirements

 Compatibility

 Example 1 - use with regular table

 Example 2 - use with uitable

 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

 Performance

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:

1. Required: The table to be copied
2. Optional: The delimiter to be used. Input must be text scalar.
3. Optional: Whether you want to include row headers. Input must be a logical scalar (i.e., true or false).

Some additional capabilities are:

• Supports the MATLAB table, timetable, eventtable, and uitable objects
• 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)

1. Generate or display table data in MATLAB.
2. Call copytable with the table as the input argument with optional arguments for the delimiter type and whether to include headers.
3. Switch to Excel.
4. 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)
end

copytable: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 Excel

ans = 
    '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 Excel

ans = 
    '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 Excel

ans = 
    '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 Excel

ans = 
    '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 Excel

ans = 
    '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')