How to import excel data

Hallo, I am using matlab Gui. I have a pushbutton_callback which should be able to store my data into workspace reading it from '.xls' file. I don't want to use the import tool rather i would like to click and get the data in workspace. I am able to read from xlsread but when i save, it is saved in .mat. Please help!! My code is :

function pushbutton17_Callback(hObject, eventdata, handles)
  % hObject    handle to pushbutton17 (see GCBO)
  % eventdata  reserved - to be defined in a future version of MATLAB
  % handles    structure with handles and user data (see GUIDATA)

    a = xlsread('frequency.xlsm','Data','range')   %%%How can i have a range from 'A7:A23','C7:F23' ??
    save('a');   %%saves in .mat instead in workspace .dat

Answer 1

[KSSV]

a = xlsread('frequency.xlsm','Data','range')   
save('myfile.mat','a')