Convert HTML to MATLAB Online

Paste a HTML table below, edit it if you need to, and get MATLAB back. The conversion runs in your browser, so nothing is uploaded, there is no size limit and there is no signup.

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The output will appear here once there is a table to convert.

What HTML is

An HTML table is a table element containing thead and tbody, with th cells for headers and td cells for data.

Web pages, email templates and anything pasted into a CMS.

What MATLAB is

MATLAB cell arrays combined into a table with the table() function.

Engineering and research code.

What changes when you convert HTML to MATLAB

The first table in the markup is used. Cell contents are stripped of inline tags and entities are decoded, so <td><b>Total</b>&nbsp;</td> arrives as Total. Nested tables inside a cell are not descended into.

One cell array per column, then a single table() call. Column names are sanitised to valid variable names.

What carries over from HTML to MATLAB

HTML records 3 things about a table that MATLAB has no way to hold.

MATLAB wants a type for each column, and HTML does not record one, so each column is typed from what its values look like. A column of digits that should stay text - a zip code, a phone number, a leading-zero id - is the usual thing to check afterwards.

HTML can hold a value that is itself a list or an object. MATLAB has only flat cells, so nested values are flattened into one cell rather than being spread across columns.

A line break inside a cell ends the row in MATLAB, so line breaks are replaced rather than carried through.

Anything visual in the HTML - weight, alignment, colour, column widths - has no counterpart in MATLAB and is dropped. The values are what survives.

The identifier 007 comes out of the MATLAB as 007. Reading it as a number would have made it 7, and an id that changes value is worse than one that stays text.

The role "Analyst, data" survives with its comma, in one cell rather than split across two. That is the first thing to check in any converted table, and the usual place a MATLAB file goes wrong.

The quotes around Jonah "Jo" Pryce are left as a plain quote character in the MATLAB.

A worked example

Three rows of staff data, with an identifier that has a leading zero, a value containing a comma, a value containing quotes and one blank cell. Those are the four places formats disagree, so they are the four places to look.

HTML in
<table>
  <thead>
    <tr><th>id</th><th>name</th><th>role</th><th>started</th><th>hours</th></tr>
  </thead>
  <tbody>
    <tr><td>007</td><td>Halima Yusuf</td><td>Analyst, data</td><td>2024-03-15</td><td>38.5</td></tr>
    <tr><td>012</td><td>Jonah "Jo" Pryce</td><td>Engineer</td><td>2025-11-02</td><td></td></tr>
    <tr><td>104</td><td>Wei Chen</td><td>Manager</td><td>2023-06-30</td><td>40</td></tr>
  </tbody>
</table>
MATLAB out
id = {'007'; '012'; '104'}';
name = {'Halima Yusuf'; 'Jonah "Jo" Pryce'; 'Wei Chen'}';
role = {'Analyst, data'; 'Engineer'; 'Manager'}';
started = {'2024-03-15'; '2025-11-02'; '2023-06-30'}';
hours = {'38.5'; ''; '40'}';
staff = table(id, name, role, started, hours);

Questions

How do I convert HTML to MATLAB?

Paste your HTML into the box above or drop the file onto it. Check the table in the grid, then copy or download the MATLAB from the output panel. It takes one step and the data never leaves your browser.

What happens to nested values?

MATLAB has no nested cell, so a list or object inside a HTML value is flattened into a single cell rather than expanded into extra columns. Split it before converting if the parts need to be separate.

One of my cells has a line break in it - what happens?

A line break would end the row in MATLAB, so it is replaced instead of carried through. The rest of the cell stays where it belongs.

Is there a limit on file size?

No. The work happens on your own machine, so the limit is your machine's memory rather than an upload cap. A file with tens of thousands of rows converts in a second or two.

Is my data uploaded anywhere?

No. The parsing and generating are done by JavaScript running on this page. You can watch the network tab while you convert and see that nothing is sent.

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