Excel spreadsheet matrix into Octave using clipboard?

[Henry F. Mollet]

How do I get a matrix from Mac Excel into Octave (installed via Fink on iMac
with OS X 10.2) using the clipboard. I've been using PopTools (=Excel
add-in), to do matrix calculations (eigenvalues, eigenvectors for shark
populations). Now I'd like to use Octave to do the same. When I try to paste
a single row "0 0 1.37374" by inputing at prompt "a = [", then paste, then
"]" I get:

octave:5> m = [0.000000.000001.37374]
parse error:
>>> m = [0.000000.000001.37374]
                       ^
octave:5> m
error: `m' undefined near line 5 column 1

I.e. The space delimiters, I see in the clipboard, are ignored.

The same procedure worked on a PC with Excel and MATLAB using a simple 3x3
matrix. Above I used only a row vector to simplify the output. I have large
matrices to be used which are easily set up in an Excel spreadsheet but I
don't know how to do it in Octave.
Henry





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