sheetjs_sheetjs/docbits/82_util.md

Utility Functions

The sheet_to_* functions accept a worksheet and an optional options object.

The *_to_sheet functions accept a data object and an optional options object.

The examples are based on the following worksheet:

XXX| A | B | C | D | E | F | G |
---+---+---+---+---+---+---+---+
 1 | S | h | e | e | t | J | S |
 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
 3 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 |

Array of Arrays Input

XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet takes an array of arrays of JS values and returns a worksheet resembling the input data. Numbers, Booleans and Strings are stored as the corresponding styles. Dates are stored as date or numbers. Array holes and explicit undefined values are skipped. null values may be stubbed. All other values are stored as strings. The function takes an options argument:

Option Name	Default	Description
dateNF	fmt 14	Use specified date format in string output
cellDates	false	Store dates as type d (default is n)
sheetStubs	false	Create cell objects of type z for null values

To generate the example sheet:

var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([
	"SheetJS".split(""),
	[1,2,3,4,5,6,7],
	[2,3,4,5,6,7,8]
]);

Formulae Output

XLSX.utils.sheet_to_formulae generates an array of commands that represent how a person would enter data into an application. Each entry is of the form A1-cell-address=formula-or-value. String literals are prefixed with a ' in accordance with Excel. For the example sheet:

> var o = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_formulae(ws);
> o.filter(function(v, i) { return i % 5 === 0; });
[ 'A1=\'S', 'F1=\'J', 'D2=4', 'B3=3', 'G3=8' ]

CSV and general DSV Output

As an alternative to the writeFile CSV type, XLSX.utils.sheet_to_csv also produces CSV output. The function takes an options argument:

Option Name	Default	Description
FS	","	"Field Separator" delimiter between fields
RS	"\n"	"Record Separator" delimiter between rows
dateNF	fmt 14	Use specified date format in string output
strip	false	Remove trailing field separators in each record **
blankrows	true	Include blank lines in the CSV output

• strip will remove trailing commas from each line under default FS/RS
• blankrows must be set to false to skip blank lines.

For the example sheet:

> console.log(XLSX.utils.sheet_to_csv(ws));
S,h,e,e,t,J,S
1,2,3,4,5,6,7
2,3,4,5,6,7,8
> console.log(XLSX.utils.sheet_to_csv(ws, {FS:"\t"}));
S	h	e	e	t	J	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
2	3	4	5	6	7	8
> console.log(X.utils.sheet_to_csv(_ws,{FS:":",RS:"|"}));
S:h:e:e:t:J:S|1:2:3:4:5:6:7|2:3:4:5:6:7:8|

JSON

XLSX.utils.sheet_to_json and the alias XLSX.utils.sheet_to_row_object_array generate different types of JS objects. The function takes an options argument:

Option Name	Default	Description
raw	false	Use raw values (true) or formatted strings (false)
range	from WS	Override Range (see table below)
header		Control output format (see table below)
dateNF	fmt 14	Use specified date format in string output
defval		Use specified value in place of null or undefined
blankrows	**	Include blank lines in the output **

• raw only affects cells which have a format code (.z) field or a formatted text (.w) field.
• If header is specified, the first row is considered a data row; if header is not specified, the first row is the header row and not considered data.
• When header is not specified, the conversion will automatically disambiguate header entries by affixing _ and a count starting at 1. For example, if three columns have header foo the output fields are foo, foo_1, foo_2
• null values are returned when raw is true but are skipped when false.
• If defval is not specified, null and undefined values are skipped normally. If specified, all null and undefined points will be filled with defval
• When header is 1, the default is to generate blank rows. blankrows must be set to false to skip blank rows.
• When header is not 1, the default is to skip blank rows. blankrows must be truthy to generate blank rows

range is expected to be one of:

range	Description
(number)	Use worksheet range but set starting row to the value
(string)	Use specified range (A1-style bounded range string)
(default)	Use worksheet range (ws['!ref'])

header is expected to be one of:

header	Description
1	Generate an array of arrays
"A"	Row object keys are literal column labels
array of strings	Use specified strings as keys in row objects
(default)	Read and disambiguate first row as keys

If header is not 1, the row object will contain the non-enumerable property __rowNum__ that represents the row of the sheet corresponding to the entry.

For the example sheet:

> console.log(X.utils.sheet_to_json(_ws));
[ { S: 1, h: 2, e: 3, e_1: 4, t: 5, J: 6, S_1: 7 },
  { S: 2, h: 3, e: 4, e_1: 5, t: 6, J: 7, S_1: 8 } ]

> console.log(X.utils.sheet_to_json(_ws, {header:1}));
[ [ 'S', 'h', 'e', 'e', 't', 'J', 'S' ],
  [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ],
  [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ] ]

> console.log(X.utils.sheet_to_json(_ws, {header:"A"}));
[ { A: 'S', B: 'h', C: 'e', D: 'e', E: 't', F: 'J', G: 'S' },
  { A: 1, B: 2, C: 3, D: 4, E: 5, F: 6, G: 7 },
  { A: 2, B: 3, C: 4, D: 5, E: 6, F: 7, G: 8 } ]
> console.log(X.utils.sheet_to_json(_ws, {header:["A","E","I","O","U","6","9"]}));
[ { '6': 'J', '9': 'S', A: 'S', E: 'h', I: 'e', O: 'e', U: 't' },
  { '6': 6, '9': 7, A: 1, E: 2, I: 3, O: 4, U: 5 },
  { '6': 7, '9': 8, A: 2, E: 3, I: 4, O: 5, U: 6 } ]

Example showing the effect of raw:

> _ws['A2'].w = "1";                         // set A2 formatted string value
> console.log(X.utils.sheet_to_json(_ws, {header:1}));
[ [ 'S', 'h', 'e', 'e', 't', 'J', 'S' ],
  [ '1', 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ],                 // <-- A2 uses the formatted string
  [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ] ]
> console.log(X.utils.sheet_to_json(_ws, {header:1, raw:true}));
[ [ 'S', 'h', 'e', 'e', 't', 'J', 'S' ],
  [ 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 ],                   // <-- A2 uses the raw value
  [ 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 ] ]