Import data from google sheets to matlab

Hello guys,
I wanted to import data from google sheets to matlab. However I couldn't find any information about it. Since the google sheets always geting update I can't just copy and paste so I wanted to import new data for every time I run the matlab script. Is there a way?
Thanks in advance.

Answers (3)

First, find the ID for your Sheet. It's the long string if you look at the URL. For example,
http s://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/bladjaljd77442n2j3ljk2j3j2jdkdjad/edit#gid=1498695871
Then it's easy
ID = 'bladjaljd77442n2j3ljk2j3j2jdkdjad'
sheet_name = 'My Sheet';
url_name = sprintf('https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/%s/gviz/tq?tqx=out:csv&sheet=%s',...
ID, sheet_name);
sheet_data = webread(url_name);

7 Comments

This is great - is there a way to skip the first row? The sheet I am using has header info in the first row and the actual variable names in the second row.
Stuart,
I am finding that any headers that I have in my Google Sheet get included into the "header" of the MATLAB table (unsure of the technical term - see yellow highlight in screenshot). Only the numeric values are included in the MATLAB table itself, making it 4x2 instead of 5x2.
I am actually interested in having the headers included in the table (5x2 case is desirable for me). I've played around a bit, without much luck.
  1. Inserting another row of "dummy headers" in row 1 of the Google Sheet: The two strings get concatenated and left in the "header" of the MATLAB table, still.
  2. Placing the headers at the bottom row of the Google Sheet: These headers are ignored and generic names (Var1, Var2) are instead assigned.
  3. Creating a table of only characters in the Google Sheet: First row is put into the MATLAB "header" and the body of the MATLAB table becomes the other strings.
It seems that the table must be either all numbers or all strings. Again, I would like there to be a mix of this (5x2 case, with the headers as the first row of the MATLAB table).
Can anyone help me figure out how to do this?
That's really great, but doesn't work for protected sheets. The url returns the html content of google login page
is there a solution with "protected sheets"
Bennet, have you tried passing the ContentType option to webread (see the help here)?
thierry quitale la proteccion cambiando la opcion de compartir a "cualquier persona que tenga el enlace" en google sheets
Approximate translation of what @Marcos Hannibal posted:
Thierry, remove the protection by changing the sharing option to "anyone with the link" in Google Sheets.

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1 Comment

I think this is for the offline files, I want to take from online source which is specifically google sheets.

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I have same problem please help me I want to real time uptade data fron google sheet to mathlab gui

Commented:

on 1 Feb 2026 at 22:45

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