docs.sheetjs.com/docz/docs/03-demos/10-extensions/06-mathematica.md

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import current from '/version.js';

:::note

This demo was last tested in 2023 April 22 in Mathematica 13.2.1

:::

The "NodeJS" instructions describe installation steps for NodeJS projects. Mathematica has built-in features for external scripting with NodeJS. Helper functions can translate between CSV text and Mathematica datasets or arrays.

Mathematica can also use command-line tools

Integration Details

:::caution

Mathematica includes ExternalEvaluate for running scripts in an external engine. In local testing, there were incompatibilities with recent NodeJS versions. This demo uses the shell integration to call a command-line tool.

:::

Command-Line Tools

ExternalEvaluate can run command-line tools and capture standard output:

cmd = "/usr/local/bin/xlsx-cli ~/Downloads/pres.numbers"
csvdata = ExternalEvaluate["Shell" -> "StandardOutput", cmd];

Once evaluated, ImportString can interpret the data as a dataset. Typically the first row of the CSV output is the header row. The HeaderLines option controls how Mathematica parses the data:

data = ImportString[csvdata, "Dataset", "HeaderLines" -> 1]

Complete Demo

:::note

This demo was tested in macOS. The path names will differ in other platforms.

:::

1. Create the standalone xlsx-cli binary:

{`\
cd /tmp
npm i --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz exit-on-epipe commander@2
curl -LO https://docs.sheetjs.com/cli/xlsx-cli.js
npx nexe -t 14.15.3 xlsx-cli.js`}

This is discussed in "Command-line Tools"

2. Move the generated xlsx-cli to a fixed location in /usr/local/bin:

mkdir -p /usr/local/bin
mv xlsx-cli /usr/local/bin/

Reading a Local File

3. In a new Mathematica notebook, run the following snippet:

SheetJSImportFile[x_] := ImportString[Block[{Print}, ExternalEvaluate[
  "Shell" -> "StandardOutput",
  "/usr/local/bin/xlsx-cli " <> x
]], "Dataset", "HeaderLines" -> 1]

4. Download https://sheetjs.com/pres.numbers and save to Downloads folder.

5. In the Mathematica notebook, run the new function. If the file was saved to the Downloads folder, the path will be "~/Downloads/pres.numbers" in macOS:

data = SheetJSImportFile["~/Downloads/pres.numbers"]

The result should be displayed in a concise table.

Reading from a URL

FetchURL downloads a file from a specified URL. This function will be wrapped in a new function called SheetJSImportURL.

6. In the same notebook, run the following:

Needs["Utilities`URLTools`"];
SheetJSImportURL[x_] := Module[{path},(
  path = FetchURL["https://sheetjs.com/pres.numbers"];
  SheetJSImportFile[path]
)];

7. Test by downloading the test file in the notebook:

data = SheetJSImportURL["https://sheetjs.com/pres.numbers"]