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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.

Figure: MATLAB communicating 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:


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