Parser and writer for various spreadsheet formats. Pure-JS cleanroom
implementation from official specifications, related documents, and test files.
Emphasis on parsing and writing robustness, cross-format feature compatibility
with a unified JS representation, and ES3/ES5 browser compatibility back to IE6.
This is the community version. We also offer a pro version with performance enhancements, additional features by request, and dedicated support.
Pro Version
Commercial Support
Rendered Documentation
In-Browser Demos
Source Code
Issues and Bug Reports
Other General Support Issues
File format support for known spreadsheet data formats:
Graph of supported formats (click to show)
Browser Test
JS Ecosystem Demos Optional Modules ECMAScript 5 Compatibility Parsing Examples Streaming Read Parsing and Writing Examples Writing Examples Streaming Write Parsing functions Writing functions Utilities General Structures Cell Object
CDN Availability (click to show)
| CDN | URL | |-----------:|:-----------------------------------------| |
With npm:
With bower:
Frameworks and APIs
Bundlers and Tooling
Platforms and Integrations
The node version automatically requires modules for additional features. Some of these modules are rather large in size and are only needed in special circumstances, so they do not ship with the core. For browser use, they must be included directly:
An appropriate version for each dependency is included in the dist/ directory.
The complete single-file version is generated at
Webpack and Browserify builds include optional modules by default. Webpack can be configured to remove support with
To use the shim, add the shim before the script tag that loads
Prior to SheetJS, APIs for processing spreadsheet files were format-specific. Third-party libraries either supported one format, or they involved a separate set of classes for each supported file type. Even though XLSB was introduced in Excel 2007, nothing outside of SheetJS or Excel supported the format.
To promote a format-agnostic view, js-xlsx starts from a pure-JS representation that we call the "Common Spreadsheet Format". Emphasizing a uniform object representation enables new features like format conversion (reading an XLSX template and saving as XLS) and circumvents the "class trap". By abstracting the complexities of the various formats, tools need not worry about the specific file type!
A simple object representation combined with careful coding practices enables use cases in older browsers and in alternative environments like ExtendScript and Web Workers. It is always tempting to use the latest and greatest features, but they tend to require the latest versions of browsers, limiting usability.
Utility functions capture common use cases like generating JS objects or HTML. Most simple operations should only require a few lines of code. More complex operations generally should be straightforward to implement.
Excel pushes the XLSX format as default starting in Excel 2007. However, there are other formats with more appealing properties. For example, the XLSB format is spiritually similar to XLSX but files often tend up taking less than half the space and open much faster! Even though an XLSX writer is available, other format writers are available so users can take advantage of the unique characteristics of each format.
nodejs read a file (click to show)
Browser read TABLE element from page (click to show)
The
Alternatively, the HTML code can be extracted and parsed:
Browser download file (ajax) (click to show)
Note: for a more complete example that works in older browsers, check the demo at ). The directory also includes more examples with
Browser drag-and-drop (click to show)
Drag-and-drop uses the HTML5
Browser file upload form element (click to show)
Data from file input elements can be processed using the same
Note that older versions of IE do not support HTML5 File API, so the Base64 mode is used for testing.
Get Base64 encoding on OSX / Windows (click to show)
On OSX you can get the Base64 encoding with:
On Windows XP and up you can get the Base64 encoding using
(note: You have to open the file and remove the header and footer lines)
The most common and interesting formats (XLS, XLSX/M, XLSB, ODS) are ultimately ZIP or CFB containers of files. Neither format puts the directory structure at the beginning of the file: ZIP files place the Central Directory records at the end of the logical file, while CFB files can place the storage info anywhere in the file! As a result, to properly handle these formats, a streaming function would have to buffer the entire file before commencing. That belies the expectations of streaming, so we do not provide any streaming read API.
When dealing with Readable Streams, the easiest approach is to buffer the stream and process the whole thing at the end. This can be done with a temporary file or by explicitly concatenating the stream:
Explicitly concatenating streams (click to show)
More robust solutions are available using modules like
Writing to filesystem first (click to show)
This example uses
Reading a specific cell (click to show)
This example extracts the value stored in cell A1 from the first worksheet:
Adding a new worksheet to a workbook (click to show)
This example uses
The node version installs a command line tool
Some helper functions in
nodejs write a file (click to show)
Browser add to web page (click to show)
The
Browser save file (click to show)
Note: browser generates binary blob and forces a "download" to client. This example uses FileSaver:
Browser upload to server (click to show)
A complete example using XHR is included in the XHR demo, along with examples for fetch and wrapper libraries. This example assumes the server can handle Base64-encoded files (see the demo for a basic nodejs server):
nodejs convert to CSV and write file (click to show)
pipes write streams to nodejs response.
Parse options are described in the Parsing Options section.
Write options are described in the Writing Options section.
Importing:
Exporting:
Cell and cell address manipulation:
Cell range objects are stored as
Built-in export utilities (such as the CSV exporter) will use the
The actual array formula is stored in the
Type
Type
Error values and interpretation (click to show)
| Value | Error Meaning | | -----: | :-------------- | |
Type
Type
Type
Type
By default, Excel stores dates as numbers with a format code that specifies date processing. For example, the date
XLSX also supports a special date type
The default behavior for all parsers is to generate number cells. Setting
Time Zones and Dates (click to show)
Excel has no native concept of universal time. All times are specified in the local time zone. Excel limitations prevent specifying true absolute dates.
Following Excel, this library treats all dates as relative to local time zone.
Epochs: 1900 and 1904 (click to show)
Excel supports two epochs (January 1 1900 and January 1 1904), see "1900 vs. 1904 Date System" article. The workbook's epoch can be determined by examining the workbook's
Special sheet keys (accessible as
Functions that handle sheets should test for the presence of
When reading a worksheet with the
Page margin details (click to show)
| key | description | "normal" | "wide" | "narrow" | |----------|------------------------|:---------|:-------|:-------- | |
Worksheet Protection Details (click to show)
| key | feature (true=disabled / false=enabled) | default | |:----------------------|:----------------------------------------|:-----------| |
The underlying data and
File Properties (click to show)
| JS Name | Excel Description | |:--------------|:-------------------------------| |
For example, to set the workbook title property:
Custom properties are added in the workbook
Writers will process the
Defined Name Properties (click to show)
| Key | Description | |:----------|:-----------------------------------------------------------------| |
Excel allows two sheet-scoped defined names to share the same name. However, a sheet-scoped name cannot collide with a workbook-scope name. Workbook writers may not enforce this constraint.
| Key | Description | |:----------------|:----------------------------------------------------| |
| Key | Description | |:----------------|:----------------------------------------------------| |
Representation of A1=1, A2=2, A3=A1+A2 (click to show)
Shared formulae are decompressed and each cell has the formula corresponding to its cell. Writers generally do not attempt to generate shared formulae.
Cells with formula entries but no value will be serialized in a way that Excel and other spreadsheet tools will recognize. This library will not automatically compute formula results! For example, to compute
Formula without known value (click to show)
Array Formulae
Array formulae are stored in the top-left cell of the array block. All cells of an array formula have a
Array Formula examples (click to show)
For example, setting the cell
For a multi-cell array formula, every cell has the same array range but only the first cell specifies the formula. Consider
Utilities and writers are expected to check for the presence of a
Formula Output Utility Function (click to show)
The
Formulae File Format Details (click to show)
| Storage Representation | Formats | Read | Write | |:-----------------------|:-------------------------|:-----:|:-----:| | A1-style strings | XLSX | :o: | :o: | | RC-style strings | XLML and plain text | :o: | :o: | | BIFF Parsed formulae | XLSB and all XLS formats | :o: | | | OpenFormula formulae | ODS/FODS/UOS | :o: | :o: |
Since Excel prohibits named cells from colliding with names of A1 or RC style cell references, a (not-so-simple) regex conversion is possible. BIFF Parsed formulae have to be explicitly unwound. OpenFormula formulae can be converted with regular expressions.
Why are there three width types? (click to show)
There are three different width types corresponding to the three different ways spreadsheets store column widths:
SYLK and other plain text formats use raw character count. Contemporaneous tools like Visicalc and Multiplan were character based. Since the characters had the same width, it sufficed to store a count. This tradition was continued into the BIFF formats.
SpreadsheetML (2003) tried to align with HTML by standardizing on screen pixel count throughout the file. Column widths, row heights, and other measures use pixels. When the pixel and character counts do not align, Excel rounds values.
XLSX internally stores column widths in a nebulous "Max Digit Width" form. The Max Digit Width is the width of the largest digit when rendered (generally the "0" character is the widest). The internal width must be an integer multiple of the the width divided by 256. ECMA-376 describes a formula for converting between pixels and the internal width. This represents a hybrid approach.
Read functions attempt to populate all three properties. Write functions will try to cycle specified values to the desired type. In order to avoid potential conflicts, manipulation should delete the other properties first. For example, when changing the pixel width, delete the
Implementation details (click to show)
Given the constraints, it is possible to determine the MDW without actually inspecting the font! The parsers guess the pixel width by converting from width to pixels and back, repeating for all possible MDW and selecting the MDW that minimizes the error. XLML actually stores the pixel width, so the guess works in the opposite direction.
Even though all of the information is made available, writers are expected to follow the priority order:
1) use
Note: Excel UI displays the base outline level as
Implementation details (click to show)
Excel internally stores row heights in points. The default resolution is 72 DPI or 96 PPI, so the pixel and point size should agree. For different resolutions they may not agree, so the library separates the concepts.
Even though all of the information is made available, writers are expected to follow the priority order:
1) use
Custom tools should ensure that the local table has each used format string somewhere in the table. Excel convention mandates that the custom formats start at index 164. The following example creates a custom format from scratch:
New worksheet with custom format (click to show)
The rules are slightly different from how Excel displays custom number formats. In particular, literal characters must be wrapped in double quotes or preceded by a backslash. For more info, see the Excel documentation article
Default Number Formats (click to show)
The default formats are listed in ECMA-376 18.8.30:
| ID | Format | |---:|:---------------------------| | 0 |
Format 14 (
For example, the following snippet creates a link from cell
Note that Excel does not automatically style hyperlinks -- they will generally be displayed as normal text.
Links where the target is a cell or range or defined name in the same workbook ("Internal Links") are marked with a leading hash character:
For example, the following snippet appends a cell comment into cell
Note: XLSB enforces a 54 character limit on the Author name. Names longer than 54 characters may cause issues with other formats.
The visibility setting is stored in the
More details (click to show)
| Value | Definition | |:-----:|:------------| | 0 | Visible | | 1 | Hidden | | 2 | Very Hidden |
With files/master/sheetvisibility.xlsx>:
Non-Excel formats do not support the Very Hidden state. The best way to test if a sheet is visible is to check if the
The readers and writers preserve the code names, but they have to be manually set when adding a VBA blob to a different workbook.
| Option Name | Default | Description | | :---------- | ------: | :--------------------------------------------------- | |
|
Excel and other spreadsheet tools read the first few bytes and apply other heuristics to determine a file type. This enables file type punning: renaming files with the
| Byte 0 | Raw File Type | Spreadsheet Types | |:-------|:--------------|:----------------------------------------------------| |
DBF files are detected based on the first byte as well as the third and fourth bytes (corresponding to month and day of the file date)
Plain text format guessing follows the priority order:
| Format | Test | |:-------|:--------------------------------------------------------------------| | XML |
Why are random text files valid? (click to show)
Excel is extremely aggressive in reading files. Adding an XLS extension to any display text file (where the only characters are ANSI display chars) tricks Excel into thinking that the file is potentially a CSV or TSV file, even if it is only one column! This library attempts to replicate that behavior.
The best approach is to validate the desired worksheet and ensure it has the expected number of rows or columns. Extracting the range is extremely simple:
| Option Name | Default | Description | | :---------- | -------: | :-------------------------------------------------- | |
|
This is the community version. We also offer a pro version with performance enhancements, additional features by request, and dedicated support.
Pro Version
Commercial Support
Rendered Documentation
In-Browser Demos
Source Code
Issues and Bug Reports
Other General Support Issues
File format support for known spreadsheet data formats:
Graph of supported formats (click to show)
Browser Test
Table of Contents
Expand to show Table of ContentsJS Ecosystem Demos Optional Modules ECMAScript 5 Compatibility Parsing Examples Streaming Read Parsing and Writing Examples Writing Examples Streaming Write Parsing functions Writing functions Utilities General Structures Cell Object
+ [Data Types](#data-types)
+ [Dates](#dates)
Sheet Objects+ [Worksheet Object](#worksheet-object)
+ [Chartsheet Object](#chartsheet-object)
+ [Macrosheet Object](#macrosheet-object)
+ [Dialogsheet Object](#dialogsheet-object)
Workbook Object+ [Workbook File Properties](#workbook-file-properties)
Workbook-Level Attributes+ [Defined Names](#defined-names)
+ [Workbook Views](#workbook-views)
+ [Miscellaneous Workbook Properties](#miscellaneous-workbook-properties)
Document Features+ [Formulae](#formulae)
+ [Column Properties](#column-properties)
+ [Row Properties](#row-properties)
+ [Number Formats](#number-formats)
+ [Hyperlinks](#hyperlinks)
+ [Cell Comments](#cell-comments)
+ [Sheet Visibility](#sheet-visibility)
+ [VBA and Macros](#vba-and-macros)
Input Type
Guessing File Type
Supported Output Formats
Output Type
Array of Arrays Input
Array of Objects Input
HTML Table Input
Formulae Output
Delimiter-Separated Output+ [UTF-16 Unicode Text](#utf-16-unicode-text)
HTML Output
JSON
Excel 2007+ XML (XLSX/XLSM)
Excel 2.0-95 (BIFF2/BIFF3/BIFF4/BIFF5)
Excel 97-2004 Binary (BIFF8)
Excel 2003-2004 (SpreadsheetML)
Excel 2007+ Binary (XLSB, BIFF12)
Delimiter-Separated Values (CSV/TXT)
Other Workbook Formats+ [Lotus 1-2-3 (WKS/WK1/WK2/WK3/WK4/123)](#lotus-1-2-3-wkswk1wk2wk3wk4123)
+ [Quattro Pro (WQ1/WQ2/WB1/WB2/WB3/QPW)](#quattro-pro-wq1wq2wb1wb2wb3qpw)
+ [OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS/FODS)](#opendocument-spreadsheet-odsfods)
+ [Uniform Office Spreadsheet (UOS1/2)](#uniform-office-spreadsheet-uos12)
Other Single-Worksheet Formats+ [dBASE and Visual FoxPro (DBF)](#dbase-and-visual-foxpro-dbf)
+ [Symbolic Link (SYLK)](#symbolic-link-sylk)
+ [Lotus Formatted Text (PRN)](#lotus-formatted-text-prn)
+ [Data Interchange Format (DIF)](#data-interchange-format-dif)
+ [HTML](#html)
+ [Rich Text Format (RTF)](#rich-text-format-rtf)
+ [Ethercalc Record Format (ETH)](#ethercalc-record-format-eth)
Node
Browser
Tested Environments
Test Files
OSX/Linux
Windows
TestsInstallation
In the browser, just add a script tag:<script lang="javascript" src="dist/xlsx.full.min.js"></script>
CDN Availability (click to show)
| CDN | URL | |-----------:|:-----------------------------------------| |
unpkg
| |
| jsDelivr
| |
| CDNjs
| |unpkg
makes the latest version available at:<script src="https://unpkg.com/xlsx/dist/xlsx.full.min.js"></script>
With npm:
$ npm install xlsx
With bower:
$ bower install js-xlsx
JS Ecosystem Demos
Thedemos
directory includes sample projects for:Frameworks and APIs
angular 1.x
angular 2 / 4 / 5 and ionic
meteor
react and react-native
vue 2.x and weex
XMLHttpRequest and fetch
nodejs server
Bundlers and Tooling
Platforms and Integrations
electron application
nw.js application
Adobe ExtendScript
Headless Browsers
canvas-datagrid
Swift JSC and other engines
Optional Modules
Optional features (click to show)The node version automatically requires modules for additional features. Some of these modules are rather large in size and are only needed in special circumstances, so they do not ship with the core. For browser use, they must be included directly:
<!-- international support from js-codepage -->
<script src="dist/cpexcel.js"></script>
An appropriate version for each dependency is included in the dist/ directory.
The complete single-file version is generated at
dist/xlsx.full.min.js
Webpack and Browserify builds include optional modules by default. Webpack can be configured to remove support with
resolve.alias
:/* uncomment the lines below to remove support */
resolve: {
alias: { "./dist/cpexcel.js": "" } // <-- omit international support
}
ECMAScript 5 Compatibility
Since the library uses functions likeArray#forEach
, older browsers require
shims to provide missing functions.To use the shim, add the shim before the script tag that loads
xlsx.js
:<!-- add the shim first -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="shim.js"></script>
<!-- after the shim is referenced, add the library -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="xlsx.full.min.js"></script>
Philosophy
Philosophy (click to show)Prior to SheetJS, APIs for processing spreadsheet files were format-specific. Third-party libraries either supported one format, or they involved a separate set of classes for each supported file type. Even though XLSB was introduced in Excel 2007, nothing outside of SheetJS or Excel supported the format.
To promote a format-agnostic view, js-xlsx starts from a pure-JS representation that we call the "Common Spreadsheet Format". Emphasizing a uniform object representation enables new features like format conversion (reading an XLSX template and saving as XLS) and circumvents the "class trap". By abstracting the complexities of the various formats, tools need not worry about the specific file type!
A simple object representation combined with careful coding practices enables use cases in older browsers and in alternative environments like ExtendScript and Web Workers. It is always tempting to use the latest and greatest features, but they tend to require the latest versions of browsers, limiting usability.
Utility functions capture common use cases like generating JS objects or HTML. Most simple operations should only require a few lines of code. More complex operations generally should be straightforward to implement.
Excel pushes the XLSX format as default starting in Excel 2007. However, there are other formats with more appealing properties. For example, the XLSB format is spiritually similar to XLSX but files often tend up taking less than half the space and open much faster! Even though an XLSX writer is available, other format writers are available so users can take advantage of the unique characteristics of each format.
Parsing Workbooks
For parsing, the first step is to read the file. This involves acquiring the data and feeding it into the library. Here are a few common scenarios:nodejs read a file (click to show)
readFile
is only available in server environments. Browsers have no API for
reading arbitrary files given a path, so another strategy must be used.if(typeof require !== 'undefined') XLSX = require('xlsx');
var workbook = XLSX.readFile('test.xlsx');
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
Browser read TABLE element from page (click to show)
The
table_to_book
and table_to_sheet
utility functions take a DOM TABLE
element and iterate through the child nodes.var worksheet = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(document.getElementById('tableau'));
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
Alternatively, the HTML code can be extracted and parsed:
var htmlstr = document.getElementById('tableau').outerHTML;
var worksheet = XLSX.read(htmlstr, {type:'string'});
Browser download file (ajax) (click to show)
Note: for a more complete example that works in older browsers, check the demo at ). The directory also includes more examples with
XMLHttpRequest
and fetch
.var url = "http://oss.sheetjs.com/test_files/formula_stress_test.xlsx";
/* set up async GET request */
var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
req.open("GET", url, true);
req.responseType = "arraybuffer";
req.onload = function(e) {
var data = new Uint8Array(req.response);
var workbook = XLSX.read(data, {type:"array"});
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
}
req.send();
Browser drag-and-drop (click to show)
Drag-and-drop uses the HTML5
FileReader
API, loading the data with
readAsBinaryString
or readAsArrayBuffer
. Since not all browsers support the
full FileReader
API, dynamic feature tests are highly recommended.var rABS = true; // true: readAsBinaryString ; false: readAsArrayBuffer
function handleDrop(e) {
e.stopPropagation(); e.preventDefault();
var files = e.dataTransfer.files, f = files[0];
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(e) {
var data = e.target.result;
if(!rABS) data = new Uint8Array(data);
var workbook = XLSX.read(data, {type: rABS ? 'binary' : 'array'});
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
};
if(rABS) reader.readAsBinaryString(f); else reader.readAsArrayBuffer(f);
}
drop_dom_element.addEventListener('drop', handleDrop, false);
Browser file upload form element (click to show)
Data from file input elements can be processed using the same
FileReader
API
as in the drag-and-drop example:var rABS = true; // true: readAsBinaryString ; false: readAsArrayBuffer
function handleFile(e) {
var files = e.target.files, f = files[0];
var reader = new FileReader();
reader.onload = function(e) {
var data = e.target.result;
if(!rABS) data = new Uint8Array(data);
var workbook = XLSX.read(data, {type: rABS ? 'binary' : 'array'});
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
};
if(rABS) reader.readAsBinaryString(f); else reader.readAsArrayBuffer(f);
}
input_dom_element.addEventListener('change', handleFile, false);
Parsing Examples
- HTML5 File API / Base64 Text / Web Workers
Note that older versions of IE do not support HTML5 File API, so the Base64 mode is used for testing.
Get Base64 encoding on OSX / Windows (click to show)
On OSX you can get the Base64 encoding with:
$ <target_file base64 | pbcopy
On Windows XP and up you can get the Base64 encoding using
certutil
:> certutil -encode target_file target_file.b64
(note: You have to open the file and remove the header and footer lines)
- XMLHttpRequest
Streaming Read
Why is there no Streaming Read API? (click to show)The most common and interesting formats (XLS, XLSX/M, XLSB, ODS) are ultimately ZIP or CFB containers of files. Neither format puts the directory structure at the beginning of the file: ZIP files place the Central Directory records at the end of the logical file, while CFB files can place the storage info anywhere in the file! As a result, to properly handle these formats, a streaming function would have to buffer the entire file before commencing. That belies the expectations of streaming, so we do not provide any streaming read API.
When dealing with Readable Streams, the easiest approach is to buffer the stream and process the whole thing at the end. This can be done with a temporary file or by explicitly concatenating the stream:
Explicitly concatenating streams (click to show)
var fs = require('fs');
var XLSX = require('xlsx');
function process_RS(stream/*:ReadStream*/, cb/*:(wb:Workbook)=>void*/)/*:void*/{
var buffers = [];
stream.on('data', function(data) { buffers.push(data); });
stream.on('end', function() {
var buffer = Buffer.concat(buffers);
var workbook = XLSX.read(buffer, {type:"buffer"});
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook IN THE CALLBACK */
cb(workbook);
});
}
More robust solutions are available using modules like
concat-stream
.Writing to filesystem first (click to show)
This example uses
tempfile
to generate file names:var fs = require('fs'), tempfile = require('tempfile');
var XLSX = require('xlsx');
function process_RS(stream/*:ReadStream*/, cb/*:(wb:Workbook)=>void*/)/*:void*/{
var fname = tempfile('.sheetjs');
console.log(fname);
var ostream = fs.createWriteStream(fname);
stream.pipe(ostream);
ostream.on('finish', function() {
var workbook = XLSX.readFile(fname);
fs.unlinkSync(fname);
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook IN THE CALLBACK */
cb(workbook);
});
}
Working with the Workbook
The full object format is described later in this README.Reading a specific cell (click to show)
This example extracts the value stored in cell A1 from the first worksheet:
var first_sheet_name = workbook.SheetNames[0];
var address_of_cell = 'A1';
/* Get worksheet */
var worksheet = workbook.Sheets[first_sheet_name];
/* Find desired cell */
var desired_cell = worksheet[address_of_cell];
/* Get the value */
var desired_value = (desired_cell ? desired_cell.v : undefined);
Adding a new worksheet to a workbook (click to show)
This example uses
XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet
to make a
worksheet and appends the new worksheet to the workbook:var new_ws_name = "SheetJS";
/* make worksheet */
var ws_data = [
[ "S", "h", "e", "e", "t", "J", "S" ],
[ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ]
];
var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet(ws_data);
/* Add the sheet name to the list */
wb.SheetNames.push(ws_name);
/* Load the worksheet object */
wb.Sheets[ws_name] = ws;
Parsing and Writing Examples
- read + modify + write files
- node
The node version installs a command line tool
xlsx
which can read spreadsheet
files and output the contents in various formats. The source is available at
xlsx.njs
in the bin directory.Some helper functions in
XLSX.utils
generate different views of the sheets:XLSX.utils.sheet_to_csv
generates CSVXLSX.utils.sheet_to_txt
generates UTF16 Formatted TextXLSX.utils.sheet_to_html
generates HTMLXLSX.utils.sheet_to_json
generates an array of objectsXLSX.utils.sheet_to_formulae
generates a list of formulae
Writing Workbooks
For writing, the first step is to generate output data. The helper functionswrite
and writeFile
will produce the data in various formats suitable for
dissemination. The second step is to actual share the data with the end point.
Assuming workbook
is a workbook object:nodejs write a file (click to show)
writeFile
is only available in server environments. Browsers have no API for
writing arbitrary files given a path, so another strategy must be used.if(typeof require !== 'undefined') XLSX = require('xlsx');
/* output format determined by filename */
XLSX.writeFile(workbook, 'out.xlsb');
/* at this point, out.xlsb is a file that you can distribute */
Browser add to web page (click to show)
The
sheet_to_html
utility function generates HTML code that can be added to
any DOM element.var worksheet = workbook.Sheets[workbook.SheetNames[0]];
var container = document.getElementById('tableau');
container.innerHTML = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_html(worksheet);
Browser save file (click to show)
Note: browser generates binary blob and forces a "download" to client. This example uses FileSaver:
/* bookType can be any supported output type */
var wopts = { bookType:'xlsx', bookSST:false, type:'array' };
var wbout = XLSX.write(workbook,wopts);
/* the saveAs call downloads a file on the local machine */
saveAs(new Blob([wbout],{type:"application/octet-stream"}), "test.xlsx");
Browser upload to server (click to show)
A complete example using XHR is included in the XHR demo, along with examples for fetch and wrapper libraries. This example assumes the server can handle Base64-encoded files (see the demo for a basic nodejs server):
/* in this example, send a base64 string to the server */
var wopts = { bookType:'xlsx', bookSST:false, type:'base64' };
var wbout = XLSX.write(workbook,wopts);
var req = new XMLHttpRequest();
req.open("POST", "/upload", true);
var formdata = new FormData();
formdata.append('file', 'test.xlsx'); // <-- server expects `file` to hold name
formdata.append('data', wbout); // <-- `data` holds the base64-encoded data
req.send(formdata);
Writing Examples
- exporting an HTML table
- generates a simple file
Streaming Write
The streaming write functions are available in theXLSX.stream
object. They
take the same arguments as the normal write functions but return a Readable
Stream. They are only exposed in NodeJS.XLSX.stream.to_csv
is the streaming version ofXLSX.utils.sheet_to_csv
.XLSX.stream.to_html
is the streaming version ofXLSX.utils.sheet_to_html
.
nodejs convert to CSV and write file (click to show)
var output_file_name = "out.csv";
var stream = XLSX.stream.to_csv(worksheet);
stream.pipe(fs.createWriteStream(output_file_name));
pipes write streams to nodejs response.
Interface
XLSX
is the exposed variable in the browser and the exported node variableXLSX.version
is the version of the library (added by the build script).XLSX.SSF
is an embedded version of the format library.Parsing functions
XLSX.read(data, read_opts)
attempts to parse data
.XLSX.readFile(filename, read_opts)
attempts to read filename
and parse.Parse options are described in the Parsing Options section.
Writing functions
XLSX.write(wb, write_opts)
attempts to write the workbook wb
XLSX.writeFile(wb, filename, write_opts)
attempts to write wb
to filename
XLSX.writeFileAsync(filename, wb, o, cb)
attempts to write wb
to filename
.
If o
is omitted, the writer will use the third argument as the callback.XLSX.stream
contains a set of streaming write functions.Write options are described in the Writing Options section.
Utilities
Utilities are available in theXLSX.utils
object and are described in the
Utility Functions section:Importing:
aoa_to_sheet
converts an array of arrays of JS data to a worksheet.json_to_sheet
converts an array of JS objects to a worksheet.table_to_sheet
converts a DOM TABLE element to a worksheet.sheet_add_aoa
adds an array of arrays of JS data to an existing worksheet.sheet_add_json
adds an array of JS objects to an existing worksheet.
Exporting:
sheet_to_json
converts a worksheet object to an array of JSON objects.sheet_to_csv
generates delimiter-separated-values output.sheet_to_txt
generates UTF16 formatted text.sheet_to_html
generates HTML output.sheet_to_formulae
generates a list of the formulae (with value fallbacks).
Cell and cell address manipulation:
format_cell
generates the text value for a cell (using number formats).encode_row / decode_row
converts between 0-indexed rows and 1-indexed rows.encode_col / decode_col
converts between 0-indexed columns and column names.encode_cell / decode_cell
converts cell addresses.encode_range / decode_range
converts cell ranges.
Common Spreadsheet Format
js-xlsx conforms to the Common Spreadsheet Format (CSF):General Structures
Cell address objects are stored as{c:C, r:R}
where C
and R
are 0-indexed
column and row numbers, respectively. For example, the cell address B5
is
represented by the object {c:1, r:4}
.Cell range objects are stored as
{s:S, e:E}
where S
is the first cell and
E
is the last cell in the range. The ranges are inclusive. For example, the
range A3:B7
is represented by the object {s:{c:0, r:2}, e:{c:1, r:6}}
.
Utility functions perform a row-major order walk traversal of a sheet range:for(var R = range.s.r; R <= range.e.r; ++R) {
for(var C = range.s.c; C <= range.e.c; ++C) {
var cell_address = {c:C, r:R};
/* if an A1-style address is needed, encode the address */
var cell_ref = XLSX.utils.encode_cell(cell_address);
}
}
Cell Object
| Key | Description | | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | |v
| raw value (see Data Types section for more info) |
| w
| formatted text (if applicable) |
| t
| cell type: b
Boolean, n
Number, e
error, s
String, d
Date |
| f
| cell formula encoded as an A1-style string (if applicable) |
| F
| range of enclosing array if formula is array formula (if applicable) |
| r
| rich text encoding (if applicable) |
| h
| HTML rendering of the rich text (if applicable) |
| c
| comments associated with the cell |
| z
| number format string associated with the cell (if requested) |
| l
| cell hyperlink object (.Target
holds link, .Tooltip
is tooltip) |
| s
| the style/theme of the cell (if applicable) |Built-in export utilities (such as the CSV exporter) will use the
w
text if it
is available. To change a value, be sure to delete cell.w
(or set it to
undefined
) before attempting to export. The utilities will regenerate the w
text from the number format (cell.z
) and the raw value if possible.The actual array formula is stored in the
f
field of the first cell in the
array range. Other cells in the range will omit the f
field.Data Types
The raw value is stored in thev
field, interpreted based on the t
field.Type
b
is the Boolean type. v
is interpreted according to JS truth tables.Type
e
is the Error type. v
holds the number and w
holds the common name:Error values and interpretation (click to show)
| Value | Error Meaning | | -----: | :-------------- | |
0x00
| #NULL!
|
| 0x07
| #DIV/0!
|
| 0x0F
| #VALUE!
|
| 0x17
| #REF!
|
| 0x1D
| #NAME?
|
| 0x24
| #NUM!
|
| 0x2A
| #N/A
|
| 0x2B
| #GETTING_DATA
|Type
n
is the Number type. This includes all forms of data that Excel stores
as numbers, such as dates/times and Boolean fields. Excel exclusively uses data
that can be fit in an IEEE754 floating point number, just like JS Number, so the
v
field holds the raw number. The w
field holds formatted text. Dates are
stored as numbers by default and converted with XLSX.SSF.parse_date_code
.Type
d
is the Date type, generated only when the option cellDates
is passed.
Since JSON does not have a natural Date type, parsers are generally expected to
store ISO 8601 Date strings like you would get from date.toISOString()
. On
the other hand, writers and exporters should be able to handle date strings and
JS Date objects. Note that Excel disregards timezone modifiers and treats all
dates in the local timezone. js-xlsx does not correct for this error.Type
s
is the String type. v
should be explicitly stored as a string to
avoid possible confusion.Type
z
represents blank stub cells. These do not have any data or type, and
are not processed by any of the core library functions. By default these cells
will not be generated; the parser sheetStubs
option must be set to true
.Dates
Excel Date Code details (click to show)By default, Excel stores dates as numbers with a format code that specifies date processing. For example, the date
19-Feb-17
is stored as the number 42785
with a number format of d-mmm-yy
. The SSF
module understands number formats
and performs the appropriate conversion.XLSX also supports a special date type
d
where the data is an ISO 8601 date
string. The formatter converts the date back to a number.The default behavior for all parsers is to generate number cells. Setting
cellDates
to true will force the generators to store dates.Time Zones and Dates (click to show)
Excel has no native concept of universal time. All times are specified in the local time zone. Excel limitations prevent specifying true absolute dates.
Following Excel, this library treats all dates as relative to local time zone.
Epochs: 1900 and 1904 (click to show)
Excel supports two epochs (January 1 1900 and January 1 1904), see "1900 vs. 1904 Date System" article. The workbook's epoch can be determined by examining the workbook's
wb.Workbook.WBProps.date1904
property:!!(((wb.Workbook||{}).WBProps||{}).date1904)
Sheet Objects
Each key that does not start with!
maps to a cell (using A-1
notation)sheet[address]
returns the cell object for the specified address.Special sheet keys (accessible as
sheet[key]
, each starting with !
):sheet['!ref']
: A-1 based range representing the sheet range. Functions that
Functions that handle sheets should test for the presence of
!ref
field.
If the !ref
is omitted or is not a valid range, functions are free to treat
the sheet as empty or attempt to guess the range. The standard utilities that
ship with this library treat sheets as empty (for example, the CSV output is
empty string).When reading a worksheet with the
sheetRows
property set, the ref parameter
will use the restricted range. The original range is set at ws['!fullref']
sheet['!margins']
: Object representing the page margins. The default values
Page margin details (click to show)
| key | description | "normal" | "wide" | "narrow" | |----------|------------------------|:---------|:-------|:-------- | |
left
| left margin (inches) | 0.7
| 1.0
| 0.25
|
| right
| right margin (inches) | 0.7
| 1.0
| 0.25
|
| top
| top margin (inches) | 0.75
| 1.0
| 0.75
|
| bottom
| bottom margin (inches) | 0.75
| 1.0
| 0.75
|
| header
| header margin (inches) | 0.3
| 0.5
| 0.3
|
| footer
| footer margin (inches) | 0.3
| 0.5
| 0.3
|/* Set worksheet sheet to "normal" */
ws["!margins"]={left:0.7, right:0.7, top:0.75,bottom:0.75,header:0.3,footer:0.3}
/* Set worksheet sheet to "wide" */
ws["!margins"]={left:1.0, right:1.0, top:1.0, bottom:1.0, header:0.5,footer:0.5}
/* Set worksheet sheet to "narrow" */
ws["!margins"]={left:0.25,right:0.25,top:0.75,bottom:0.75,header:0.3,footer:0.3}
Worksheet Object
In addition to the base sheet keys, worksheets also add:ws['!cols']
: array of column properties objects. Column widths are actually
wpx
field, character
width in the wch
field, and the maximum digit width in the MDW
field.ws['!rows']
: array of row properties objects as explained later in the docs.
ws['!merges']
: array of range objects corresponding to the merged cells in
ws['!protect']
: object of write sheet protection properties. Thepassword
false
to enable a feature when
sheet is locked or set to true
to disable a feature:Worksheet Protection Details (click to show)
| key | feature (true=disabled / false=enabled) | default | |:----------------------|:----------------------------------------|:-----------| |
selectLockedCells
| Select locked cells | enabled |
| selectUnlockedCells
| Select unlocked cells | enabled |
| formatCells
| Format cells | disabled |
| formatColumns
| Format columns | disabled |
| formatRows
| Format rows | disabled |
| insertColumns
| Insert columns | disabled |
| insertRows
| Insert rows | disabled |
| insertHyperlinks
| Insert hyperlinks | disabled |
| deleteColumns
| Delete columns | disabled |
| deleteRows
| Delete rows | disabled |
| sort
| Sort | disabled |
| autoFilter
| Filter | disabled |
| pivotTables
| Use PivotTable reports | disabled |
| objects
| Edit objects | enabled |
| scenarios
| Edit scenarios | enabled |
ws['!autofilter']
: AutoFilter object following the schema:
type AutoFilter = {
ref:string; // A-1 based range representing the AutoFilter table range
}
Chartsheet Object
Chartsheets are represented as standard sheets. They are distinguished with the!type
property set to "chart"
.The underlying data and
!ref
refer to the cached data in the chartsheet. The
first row of the chartsheet is the underlying header.Macrosheet Object
Macrosheets are represented as standard sheets. They are distinguished with the!type
property set to "macro"
.Dialogsheet Object
Dialogsheets are represented as standard sheets. They are distinguished with the!type
property set to "dialog"
.Workbook Object
workbook.SheetNames
is an ordered list of the sheets in the workbookwb.Sheets[sheetname]
returns an object representing the worksheet.wb.Props
is an object storing the standard properties. wb.Custprops
stores
custom properties. Since the XLS standard properties deviate from the XLSX
standard, XLS parsing stores core properties in both places.wb.Workbook
stores workbook-level attributes.Workbook File Properties
The various file formats use different internal names for file properties. The workbookProps
object normalizes the names:File Properties (click to show)
| JS Name | Excel Description | |:--------------|:-------------------------------| |
Title
| Summary tab "Title" |
| Subject
| Summary tab "Subject" |
| Author
| Summary tab "Author" |
| Manager
| Summary tab "Manager" |
| Company
| Summary tab "Company" |
| Category
| Summary tab "Category" |
| Keywords
| Summary tab "Keywords" |
| Comments
| Summary tab "Comments" |
| LastAuthor
| Statistics tab "Last saved by" |
| CreatedDate
| Statistics tab "Created" |For example, to set the workbook title property:
if(!wb.Props) wb.Props = {};
wb.Props.Title = "Insert Title Here";
Custom properties are added in the workbook
Custprops
object:if(!wb.Custprops) wb.Custprops = {};
wb.Custprops["Custom Property"] = "Custom Value";
Writers will process the
Props
key of the options object:/* force the Author to be "SheetJS" */
XLSX.write(wb, {Props:{Author:"SheetJS"}});
Workbook-Level Attributes
wb.Workbook
stores workbook-level attributes.Defined Names
wb.Workbook.Names
is an array of defined name objects which have the keys:Defined Name Properties (click to show)
| Key | Description | |:----------|:-----------------------------------------------------------------| |
Sheet
| Name scope. Sheet Index (0 = first sheet) or null
(Workbook) |
| Name
| Case-sensitive name. Standard rules apply |
| Ref
| A1-style Reference ("Sheet1!$A$1:$D$20"
) |
| Comment
| Comment (only applicable for XLS/XLSX/XLSB) |Excel allows two sheet-scoped defined names to share the same name. However, a sheet-scoped name cannot collide with a workbook-scope name. Workbook writers may not enforce this constraint.
Workbook Views
wb.Workbook.Views
is an array of workbook view objects which have the keys:| Key | Description | |:----------------|:----------------------------------------------------| |
RTL
| If true, display right-to-left |Miscellaneous Workbook Properties
wb.Workbook.WBProps
holds other workbook properties:| Key | Description | |:----------------|:----------------------------------------------------| |
CodeName
| VBA Project Workbook Code Name |
| date1904
| epoch: 0/false for 1900 system, 1/true for 1904 |
| filterPrivacy
| Warn or strip personally identifying info on save |Document Features
Even for basic features like date storage, the official Excel formats store the same content in different ways. The parsers are expected to convert from the underlying file format representation to the Common Spreadsheet Format. Writers are expected to convert from CSF back to the underlying file format.Formulae
The A1-style formula string is stored in thef
field. Even though different
file formats store the formulae in different ways, the formats are translated.
Even though some formats store formulae with a leading equal sign, CSF formulae
do not start with =
.Representation of A1=1, A2=2, A3=A1+A2 (click to show)
{
"!ref": "A1:A3",
A1: { t:'n', v:1 },
A2: { t:'n', v:2 },
A3: { t:'n', v:3, f:'A1+A2' }
}
Shared formulae are decompressed and each cell has the formula corresponding to its cell. Writers generally do not attempt to generate shared formulae.
Cells with formula entries but no value will be serialized in a way that Excel and other spreadsheet tools will recognize. This library will not automatically compute formula results! For example, to compute
BESSELJ
in a worksheet:Formula without known value (click to show)
{
"!ref": "A1:A3",
A1: { t:'n', v:3.14159 },
A2: { t:'n', v:2 },
A3: { t:'n', f:'BESSELJ(A1,A2)' }
}
Array Formulae
Array formulae are stored in the top-left cell of the array block. All cells of an array formula have a
F
field corresponding to the range. A single-cell
formula can be distinguished from a plain formula by the presence of F
field.Array Formula examples (click to show)
For example, setting the cell
C1
to the array formula {=SUM(A1:A3*B1:B3)}
:worksheet['C1'] = { t:'n', f: "SUM(A1:A3*B1:B3)", F:"C1:C1" };
For a multi-cell array formula, every cell has the same array range but only the first cell specifies the formula. Consider
D1:D3=A1:A3*B1:B3
:worksheet['D1'] = { t:'n', F:"D1:D3", f:"A1:A3*B1:B3" };
worksheet['D2'] = { t:'n', F:"D1:D3" };
worksheet['D3'] = { t:'n', F:"D1:D3" };
Utilities and writers are expected to check for the presence of a
F
field and
ignore any possible formula element f
in cells other than the starting cell.
They are not expected to perform validation of the formulae!Formula Output Utility Function (click to show)
The
sheet_to_formulae
method generates one line per formula or array formula.
Array formulae are rendered in the form range=formula
while plain cells are
rendered in the form cell=formula or value
. Note that string literals are
prefixed with an apostrophe '
, consistent with Excel's formula bar display.
Formulae File Format Details (click to show)
| Storage Representation | Formats | Read | Write | |:-----------------------|:-------------------------|:-----:|:-----:| | A1-style strings | XLSX | :o: | :o: | | RC-style strings | XLML and plain text | :o: | :o: | | BIFF Parsed formulae | XLSB and all XLS formats | :o: | | | OpenFormula formulae | ODS/FODS/UOS | :o: | :o: |
Since Excel prohibits named cells from colliding with names of A1 or RC style cell references, a (not-so-simple) regex conversion is possible. BIFF Parsed formulae have to be explicitly unwound. OpenFormula formulae can be converted with regular expressions.
Column Properties
The!cols
array in each worksheet, if present, is a collection of ColInfo
objects which have the following properties:type ColInfo = {
/* visibility */
hidden?: boolean; // if true, the column is hidden
/* column width is specified in one of the following ways: */
wpx?: number; // width in screen pixels
width?: number; // width in Excel's "Max Digit Width", width*256 is integral
wch?: number; // width in characters
/* other fields for preserving features from files */
MDW?: number; // Excel's "Max Digit Width" unit, always integral
};
Why are there three width types? (click to show)
There are three different width types corresponding to the three different ways spreadsheets store column widths:
SYLK and other plain text formats use raw character count. Contemporaneous tools like Visicalc and Multiplan were character based. Since the characters had the same width, it sufficed to store a count. This tradition was continued into the BIFF formats.
SpreadsheetML (2003) tried to align with HTML by standardizing on screen pixel count throughout the file. Column widths, row heights, and other measures use pixels. When the pixel and character counts do not align, Excel rounds values.
XLSX internally stores column widths in a nebulous "Max Digit Width" form. The Max Digit Width is the width of the largest digit when rendered (generally the "0" character is the widest). The internal width must be an integer multiple of the the width divided by 256. ECMA-376 describes a formula for converting between pixels and the internal width. This represents a hybrid approach.
Read functions attempt to populate all three properties. Write functions will try to cycle specified values to the desired type. In order to avoid potential conflicts, manipulation should delete the other properties first. For example, when changing the pixel width, delete the
wch
and width
properties.
Implementation details (click to show)
Given the constraints, it is possible to determine the MDW without actually inspecting the font! The parsers guess the pixel width by converting from width to pixels and back, repeating for all possible MDW and selecting the MDW that minimizes the error. XLML actually stores the pixel width, so the guess works in the opposite direction.
Even though all of the information is made available, writers are expected to follow the priority order:
1) use
width
field if available
2) use wpx
pixel width if available
3) use wch
character count if available
Row Properties
The!rows
array in each worksheet, if present, is a collection of RowInfo
objects which have the following properties:type RowInfo = {
/* visibility */
hidden?: boolean; // if true, the row is hidden
/* row height is specified in one of the following ways: */
hpx?: number; // height in screen pixels
hpt?: number; // height in points
level?: number; // 0-indexed outline / group level
};
Note: Excel UI displays the base outline level as
1
and the max level as 8
.
The level
field stores the base outline as 0
and the max level as 7
.Implementation details (click to show)
Excel internally stores row heights in points. The default resolution is 72 DPI or 96 PPI, so the pixel and point size should agree. For different resolutions they may not agree, so the library separates the concepts.
Even though all of the information is made available, writers are expected to follow the priority order:
1) use
hpx
pixel height if available
2) use hpt
point height if available
Number Formats
Thecell.w
formatted text for each cell is produced from cell.v
and cell.z
format. If the format is not specified, the Excel General
format is used.
The format can either be specified as a string or as an index into the format
table. Parsers are expected to populate workbook.SSF
with the number format
table. Writers are expected to serialize the table.Custom tools should ensure that the local table has each used format string somewhere in the table. Excel convention mandates that the custom formats start at index 164. The following example creates a custom format from scratch:
New worksheet with custom format (click to show)
var wb = {
SheetNames: ["Sheet1"],
Sheets: {
Sheet1: {
"!ref":"A1:C1",
A1: { t:"n", v:10000 }, // <-- General format
B1: { t:"n", v:10000, z: "0%" }, // <-- Builtin format
C1: { t:"n", v:10000, z: "\"T\"\ #0.00" } // <-- Custom format
}
}
}
The rules are slightly different from how Excel displays custom number formats. In particular, literal characters must be wrapped in double quotes or preceded by a backslash. For more info, see the Excel documentation article
Create or delete a custom number format
or ECMA-376 18.8.31 (Number Formats)Default Number Formats (click to show)
The default formats are listed in ECMA-376 18.8.30:
| ID | Format | |---:|:---------------------------| | 0 |
General
|
| 1 | 0
|
| 2 | 0.00
|
| 3 | #,##0
|
| 4 | #,##0.00
|
| 9 | 0%
|
| 10 | 0.00%
|
| 11 | 0.00E+00
|
| 12 | # ?/?
|
| 13 | # ??/??
|
| 14 | m/d/yy
(see below) |
| 15 | d-mmm-yy
|
| 16 | d-mmm
|
| 17 | mmm-yy
|
| 18 | h:mm AM/PM
|
| 19 | h:mm:ss AM/PM
|
| 20 | h:mm
|
| 21 | h:mm:ss
|
| 22 | m/d/yy h:mm
|
| 37 | #,##0 ;(#,##0)
|
| 38 | #,##0 ;[Red](#,##0)
|
| 39 | #,##0.00;(#,##0.00)
|
| 40 | #,##0.00;[Red](#,##0.00)
|
| 45 | mm:ss
|
| 46 | [h]:mm:ss
|
| 47 | mmss.0
|
| 48 | ##0.0E+0
|
| 49 | @
|Format 14 (
m/d/yy
) is localized by Excel: even though the file specifies that
number format, it will be drawn differently based on system settings. It makes
sense when the producer and consumer of files are in the same locale, but that
is not always the case over the Internet. To get around this ambiguity, parse
functions accept the dateNF
option to override the interpretation of that
specific format string.Hyperlinks
Hyperlinks are stored in thel
key of cell objects. The Target
field of the
hyperlink object is the target of the link, including the URI fragment. Tooltips
are stored in the Tooltip
field and are displayed when you move your mouse
over the text.For example, the following snippet creates a link from cell
A3
to
with the tip "Find us @ SheetJS.com!"
:ws['A3'].l = { Target:"http://sheetjs.com", Tooltip:"Find us @ SheetJS.com!" };
Note that Excel does not automatically style hyperlinks -- they will generally be displayed as normal text.
Links where the target is a cell or range or defined name in the same workbook ("Internal Links") are marked with a leading hash character:
ws['A2'].l = { Target:"#E2" }; /* link to cell E2 */
Cell Comments
Cell comments are objects stored in thec
array of cell objects. The actual
contents of the comment are split into blocks based on the comment author. The
a
field of each comment object is the author of the comment and the t
field
is the plain text representation.For example, the following snippet appends a cell comment into cell
A1
:if(!ws.A1.c) ws.A1.c = [];
ws.A1.c.push({a:"SheetJS", t:"I'm a little comment, short and stout!"});
Note: XLSB enforces a 54 character limit on the Author name. Names longer than 54 characters may cause issues with other formats.
Sheet Visibility
Excel enables hiding sheets in the lower tab bar. The sheet data is stored in the file but the UI does not readily make it available. Standard hidden sheets are revealed in the "Unhide" menu. Excel also has "very hidden" sheets which cannot be revealed in the menu. It is only accessible in the VB Editor!The visibility setting is stored in the
Hidden
property of sheet props array.More details (click to show)
| Value | Definition | |:-----:|:------------| | 0 | Visible | | 1 | Hidden | | 2 | Very Hidden |
With files/master/sheetvisibility.xlsx>:
> wb.Workbook.Sheets.map(function(x) { return [x.name, x.Hidden] })
[ [ 'Visible', 0 ], [ 'Hidden', 1 ], [ 'VeryHidden', 2 ] ]
Non-Excel formats do not support the Very Hidden state. The best way to test if a sheet is visible is to check if the
Hidden
property is logical truth:> wb.Workbook.Sheets.map(function(x) { return [x.name, !x.Hidden] })
[ [ 'Visible', true ], [ 'Hidden', false ], [ 'VeryHidden', false ] ]
VBA and Macros
VBA Macros are stored in a special data blob that is exposed in thevbaraw
property of the workbook object when the bookVBA
option is true
. They are
supported in XLSM
, XLSB
, and BIFF8 XLS
formats. The supported format
writers automatically insert the data blobs if it is present in the workbook and
associate with the worksheet names.<summary><b>Custom Code Names</b> (click to show)</summary>
The workbook code name is stored in wb.Workbook.WBProps.CodeName
. By default,
Excel will write ThisWorkbook
or a translated phrase like DieseArbeitsmappe
.
Worksheet and Chartsheet code names are in the worksheet properties object at
wb.Workbook.Sheets[i].CodeName
. Macrosheets and Dialogsheets are ignored.The readers and writers preserve the code names, but they have to be manually set when adding a VBA blob to a different workbook.
<summary><b>Macrosheets</b> (click to show)</summary>
Older versions of Excel also supported a non-VBA "macrosheet" sheet type that
stored automation commands. These are exposed in objects with the !type
property set to "macro"
.<summary><b>Detecting macros in workbooks</b> (click to show)</summary>
The vbaraw
field will only be set if macros are present, so testing is simple:function wb_has_macro(wb/*:workbook*/)/*:boolean*/ {
if(!!wb.vbaraw) return true;
const sheets = wb.SheetNames.map((n) => wb.Sheets[n]);
return sheets.some((ws) => !!ws && ws['!type']=='macro');
}
Parsing Options
The exportedread
and readFile
functions accept an options argument:| Option Name | Default | Description | | :---------- | ------: | :--------------------------------------------------- | |
type
| | Input data encoding (see Input Type below) |
|raw
| false | If true, plain text parsing will not parse values |
|codepage
| | If specified, use code page when appropriate |
|cellFormula
| true | Save formulae to the .f field |
|cellHTML
| true | Parse rich text and save HTML to the .h
field |
|cellNF
| false | Save number format string to the .z
field |
|cellStyles
| false | Save style/theme info to the .s
field |
|cellText
| true | Generated formatted text to the .w
field |
|cellDates
| false | Store dates as type d
(default is n
) |
|dateNF
| | If specified, use the string for date code 14 |
|sheetStubs
| false | Create cell objects of type z
for stub cells |
|sheetRows
| 0 | If >0, read the first sheetRows
rows |
|bookDeps
| false | If true, parse calculation chains |
|bookFiles
| false | If true, add raw files to book object |
|bookProps
| false | If true, only parse enough to get book metadata |
|bookSheets
| false | If true, only parse enough to get the sheet names |
|bookVBA
| false | If true, copy VBA blob to vbaraw
field |
|password
| "" | If defined and file is encrypted, use password |
|WTF
| false | If true, throw errors on unexpected file features |- Even if
cellNF
is false, formatted text will be generated and saved to.w
- In some cases, sheets may be parsed even if
bookSheets
is false. - Excel aggressively tries to interpret values from CSV and other plain text.
raw
option suppresses value parsing.bookSheets
andbookProps
combine to give both sets of informationDeps
will be an empty object ifbookDeps
is falsebookFiles
behavior depends on file type:
* `keys` array (paths in the ZIP) for ZIP-based formats
* `files` hash (mapping paths to objects representing the files) for ZIP
* `cfb` object for formats using CFB containers
sheetRows-1
rows will be generated when looking at the JSON object output
bookVBA
merely exposes the raw VBA CFB object. It does not parse the data.
xl/vbaProject.bin
. BIFF8 XLS mixes
the VBA entries alongside the core Workbook entry, so the library generates a
new XLSB-compatible blob from the XLS CFB container.codepage
is applied to BIFF2 - BIFF5 files withoutCodePage
records and to
type:"binary"
. BIFF8 XLS always defaults to 1200.- Currently only XOR encryption is supported. Unsupported error will be thrown
- WTF is mainly for development. By default, the parser will suppress read
WTF:1
forces those errors to be thrown.Input Type
Strings can be interpreted in multiple ways. Thetype
parameter for read
tells the library how to parse the data argument:|
type
| expected input |
|------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| "base64"
| string: Base64 encoding of the file |
| "binary"
| string: binary string (byte n
is data.charCodeAt(n)
) |
| "string"
| string: JS string (characters interpreted as UTF8) |
| "buffer"
| nodejs Buffer |
| "array"
| array: array of 8-bit unsigned int (byte n
is data[n]
) |
| "file"
| string: path of file that will be read (nodejs only) |Guessing File Type
Implementation Details (click to show)Excel and other spreadsheet tools read the first few bytes and apply other heuristics to determine a file type. This enables file type punning: renaming files with the
.xls
extension will tell your computer to use Excel to open the
file but Excel will know how to handle it. This library applies similar logic:| Byte 0 | Raw File Type | Spreadsheet Types | |:-------|:--------------|:----------------------------------------------------| |
0xD0
| CFB Container | BIFF 5/8 or password-protected XLSX/XLSB or WQ3/QPW |
| 0x09
| BIFF Stream | BIFF 2/3/4/5 |
| 0x3C
| XML/HTML | SpreadsheetML / Flat ODS / UOS1 / HTML / plain text |
| 0x50
| ZIP Archive | XLSB or XLSX/M or ODS or UOS2 or plain text |
| 0x49
| Plain Text | SYLK or plain text |
| 0x54
| Plain Text | DIF or plain text |
| 0xEF
| UTF8 Encoded | SpreadsheetML / Flat ODS / UOS1 / HTML / plain text |
| 0xFF
| UTF16 Encoded | SpreadsheetML / Flat ODS / UOS1 / HTML / plain text |
| 0x00
| Record Stream | Lotus WK\* or Quattro Pro or plain text |
| 0x7B
| Plain text | RTF or plain text |
| 0x0A
| Plain text | SpreadsheetML / Flat ODS / UOS1 / HTML / plain text |
| 0x0D
| Plain text | SpreadsheetML / Flat ODS / UOS1 / HTML / plain text |
| 0x20
| Plain text | SpreadsheetML / Flat ODS / UOS1 / HTML / plain text |DBF files are detected based on the first byte as well as the third and fourth bytes (corresponding to month and day of the file date)
Plain text format guessing follows the priority order:
| Format | Test | |:-------|:--------------------------------------------------------------------| | XML |
<?xml
appears in the first 1024 characters |
| HTML | starts with <
and HTML tags appear in the first 1024 characters |
| XML | starts with <
|
| RTF | starts with {\rt
|
| DSV | starts with /sep=.$/
, separator is the specified character |
| DSV | more unquoted ";"
chars than "\t"
or ","
in the first 1024 |
| TSV | more unquoted "\t"
chars than ","
chars in the first 1024 |
| CSV | one of the first 1024 characters is a comma ","
|
| ETH | starts with socialcalc:version:
|
| PRN | (default) |- HTML tags include:
html
,table
,head
,meta
,script
,style
,div
Why are random text files valid? (click to show)
Excel is extremely aggressive in reading files. Adding an XLS extension to any display text file (where the only characters are ANSI display chars) tricks Excel into thinking that the file is potentially a CSV or TSV file, even if it is only one column! This library attempts to replicate that behavior.
The best approach is to validate the desired worksheet and ensure it has the expected number of rows or columns. Extracting the range is extremely simple:
var range = XLSX.utils.decode_range(worksheet['!ref']);
var ncols = range.e.c - range.r.c + 1, nrows = range.e.r - range.s.r + 1;
Writing Options
The exportedwrite
and writeFile
functions accept an options argument:| Option Name | Default | Description | | :---------- | -------: | :-------------------------------------------------- | |
type
| | Output data encoding (see Output Type below) |
|cellDates
| false
| Store dates as type d
(default is n
) |
|bookSST
| false
| Generate Shared String Table |
|bookType
| "xlsx"
| Type of Workbook (see below for supported formats) |
|sheet
| ""
| Name of Worksheet for single-sheet formats |
|compression
| false
| Use ZIP compression for ZIP-based formats |
|Props
| | Override workbook properties when writing |
|themeXLSX
| | Override theme XML when writing XLSX/XLSB/XLSM |bookSST
is slower and more memory intensive, but has better compatibility
- The raw data is the only thing guaranteed to be saved. Features not described
cellDates
only applies to XLSX output and is not guaranteed to work with
d
so non-Excel tools may ignore the data or error in the presence of dates.Props
is an object mirroring the workbookProps
field. See the table from
- if specified, the string from
themeXLSX
will be saved as the primary theme
xl/theme/theme1.xml
in the ZIP)Supported Output Formats
For broad compatibility with third-party tools, this library supports many output formats. The specific file type is controlled withbookType
option:|
bookType
| file ext | container | sheets | Description |
| :--------- | -------: | :-------: | :----- |:------------------------------- |
| xlsx
| .xlsx
| ZIP | multi | Excel 2007+ XML Format |
| xlsm
| .xlsm
| ZIP | multi | Excel 2007+ Macro XML Format |
| xlsb
| .xlsb
| ZIP | multi | Excel 2007+ Binary Format |
| biff8
| .xls
| CFB | multi | Excel 97-2004 Workbook Format |
| biff5
| .xls
| CFB | multi | Excel 5.0/95 Workbook Format |
| biff2
| .xls
| none | single | Excel 2.0 Worksheet Format |
| xlml
| .xls
| none | multi | Excel 2003-2004 (SpreadsheetML) |
| ods
| .ods
| ZIP | multi | OpenDocument Spreadsheet |
| fods
| .fods
| none | multi | Flat OpenDocument Spreadsheet |
| csv
| .csv
| none | single | Comma Separated Values |
| txt
| .txt
| none | single | UTF-16 Unicode Text (TXT) |
| sylk
| .sylk
| none | single | Symbolic Link (SYLK) |
| html
| .html
| none | single | HTML Document |
| dif
| .dif
| none | single | Data Interchange Format (DIF) |
| dbf
| .dbf
| none | single | dBASE II + VFP Extensions (DBF) |
| rtf
| .rtf
| none | single | Rich Text Format (RTF) |
| prn
| .prn
| none | single | Lotus Formatted Text |
| eth
| .eth
| none | single | Ethercalc Record Format (ETH) |compression
only applies to formats with ZI