Concerning spreadsheets, 2 formats are supported: Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel. The Excel spreadsheet function is new for MatLab version 6.x so previous MatLab versions can't import Excel spreadsheets (without resorting to acrobatics). The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet function works for MatLab version 5.x and later. SVAR is able to read both dates and variable names from spreadsheets; I have not tested its behavior when a spreadsheet contains multiple rows or multiple columns of text, and I can therefore not guarantee that such files can be read accurately. Moreover, for version 6.x and later of MatLab, SVAR detects multiple sheets in an Excel spreadsheet and presents the user with the option to choose one of these.
In the stand-alone release, SVAR reads data from spreadsheets faster than from text files. If the stand-alone release has been compiled with the Matlab compiler for version 5.x, SVAR can't read Excel spreadsheets. This is, for example, the case for the version currently being available from homepage for SVAR. A later version of the compiler and Matlab is required for that feature to be added.
When SVAR exports data, it will do so to text files and these include variable names and dates in a format given by the example above, but with : instead of Q to separate year from period.