Export a matrix to Excel

Question

I made a matrix and I want to export it to Excel. The matrix looks like this:

           1         2         3         4         5         6         7
2  0.4069264                                                            
3  0.5142857 0.2948718                                                  
4  0.3939394 0.4098639 0.3772894                                        
5  0.3476190 0.3717949 0.3194444 0.5824176                              
6  0.2809524 0.3974359 0.2222222 0.3388278 0.3974359                    
7  0.2809524 0.5987654 0.3933333 0.4188713 0.4711538 0.3429487          
8  0.4675325 0.4855072 0.4523810 0.4917184 0.3409091 0.4318182 0.4128788
9  0.3896104 0.5189594 0.4404762 0.2667549 0.5471429 0.3604762 0.3081502
10 0.4242424 0.4068878 0.3484432 0.2708333 0.4766484 0.3740842 0.4528219
11 0.3476190 0.3942308 0.2881944 0.3228022 0.4711538 0.2147436 0.3653846
12 0.6060606 0.3949830 0.2971612 0.3541667 0.5022894 0.3484432 0.4466490
13 0.4675325 0.5972222 0.6060606 0.3670635 0.4393939 0.3939394 0.3695652
14 0.4978355 0.4951499 0.4480952 0.4713404 0.3814286 0.3147619 0.4629121
15 0.4632035 0.4033883 0.4508929 0.3081502 0.4728571 0.3528571 0.4828571
16 0.3766234 0.5173993 0.4771825 0.4734432 0.5114286 0.3514286 0.4214286
17 0.3939394 0.5289116 0.3260073 0.3333333 0.5663919 0.2330586 0.3015873
18 0.3939394 0.3708791 0.2837302 0.4102564 0.3392857 0.2559524 0.4123810
19 0.3160173 0.5727041 0.4885531 0.3056973 0.4725275 0.3827839 0.3346561
20 0.3333333 0.5793651 0.4257143 0.4876543 0.4390476 0.2390476 0.3131868
21 0.5281385 0.3762755 0.4052198 0.2997449 0.4180403 0.2898352 0.4951499
22 0.3593074 0.3784014 0.4075092 0.2423469 0.4908425 0.3113553 0.3430335
23 0.5281385 0.5875850 0.4404762 0.4634354 0.6071429 0.3763736 0.3747795
24 0.3549784 0.6252381 0.5957341 0.4328571 0.4429563 0.4429563 0.3422619
25 0.4242424 0.4931973 0.5054945 0.2142857 0.4670330 0.4285714 0.4312169
26 0.3852814 0.5671769 0.4954212 0.4073129 0.3736264 0.4890110 0.4523810
27 0.5238095 0.3269558 0.5187729 0.4051871 0.5412088 0.5155678 0.5859788
28 0.3160173 0.1904762 0.3205128 0.3384354 0.3429487 0.3173077 0.5123457
29 0.2380952 0.4468537 0.5196886 0.4536565 0.4491758 0.4491758 0.4634039
30 0.4545455 0.4295635 0.4080087 0.4791667 0.3474026 0.3019481 0.4627329
31 0.2857143 0.3988095 0.3397436 0.3443878 0.4294872 0.2756410 0.3456790
32 0.3636364 0.3027211 0.3772894 0.3452381 0.4413919 0.3388278 0.3818342
33 0.3333333 0.4482402 0.4080087 0.4275362 0.2888199 0.4047619 0.4301242
34 0.5411255 0.4825680 0.4043040 0.4417517 0.4748168 0.3850733 0.3708113
35 0.3160173 0.5476190 0.4230769 0.3979592 0.3653846 0.3397436 0.2283951
36 0.4603175 0.4653209 0.4778912 0.5170807 0.3928571 0.4508282 0.4254658
37 0.3939394 0.1955782 0.2490842 0.4047619 0.2490842 0.3516484 0.4559083
38 0.3463203 0.4660494 0.4300000 0.4157848 0.3833333 0.2233333 0.2788462
39 0.5844156 0.4668367 0.3809524 0.3843537 0.4803114 0.3008242 0.5026455
40 0.5454545 0.4902211 0.3740842 0.2946429 0.5279304 0.2971612 0.3293651
41 0.5800866 0.3758503 0.5073260 0.5136054 0.3598901 0.5393773 0.4823633
42 0.4458874 0.3937390 0.3785714 0.4686949 0.3768315 0.3127289 0.4954212
43 0.6536797 0.5740741 0.5533333 0.4453263 0.4866667 0.5400000 0.4358974
44 0.5887446 0.5548469 0.4308608 0.3949830 0.5462454 0.3411172 0.5136684
45 0.4069264 0.4357993 0.4308608 0.3830782 0.4308608 0.3795788 0.4025573
46 0.5974026 0.3826531 0.3672161 0.3954082 0.4441392 0.3159341 0.5141093
47 0.2554113 0.4196429 0.4262821 0.4961735 0.2788462 0.3301282 0.3055556

I tried the command:

WriteXLS("my matrix after i converted it to data.frame", "test.xls")

but I got this error:

The Perl script 'WriteXLS.pl' failed to run successfully.

I googled it but I couldn't find a solution.

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Any reason why you can't just use write.csv?

write.csv(mymatrix, "test.csv")

Import it in Excel and you're set!

PS: I assume you're not putting quotes around your variable name in the WriteXLS call, right?

Answer 2

One other option on Windows (which seems a reasonable assumption given that you are using Excel):

You can write a matrix (or data frame) to the clipboard using a command like:

write.table(mymat, 'clipboard', sep='\t')

Then just go into Excel, click in the cell that you want to be the top left cell, then do a paste and your matrix is there (the sep='\t' is important for Excel to interpret it correctly).

This is similar to other answers, but you don't need an intermediate file on disk.