data = xlsread('two_column_file.xlsx'); 
 
          first_column = data(:,1); 
          second_column = data(:,2); 
 
          % for example for a list of points with x values in the first column 
          % and y values in the second column, you would use: 
 
          data = xlsread('shock_tower_pts.xlsx'); % two columns of data 
 
          xs = data(:,1); 
          ys = data(:,2); 
 
          % and for example you might want to plot this data: 
 
          plot(xs,ys);