---
title: NodeJS
pagination_prev: getting-started/index
pagination_next: getting-started/examples/index
sidebar_position: 3
sidebar_custom_props:
  summary: Server-side and other frameworks using NodeJS modules
---

import current from '/version.js';
import Tabs from '@theme/Tabs';
import TabItem from '@theme/TabItem';
import CodeBlock from '@theme/CodeBlock';

Package tarballs are available on https://cdn.sheetjs.com.

<p><a href={"https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-" + current + "/xlsx-" + current + ".tgz"}>{"https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-" + current + "/xlsx-" + current + ".tgz"}</a> is the URL for version {current}</p>

## Installation

Tarballs can be directly installed using a package manager:

<Tabs groupId="pm">
  <TabItem value="npm" label="npm">
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
npm rm --save xlsx
npm i --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="pnpm" label="pnpm">
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
pnpm rm xlsx
pnpm install --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="yarn" label="Yarn" default>
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
yarn remove xlsx
yarn add https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>

:::caution pass

Newer releases of Yarn may throw an error:

```
Usage Error: It seems you are trying to add a package using a https:... url; we now require package names to be explicitly specified.
Try running the command again with the package name prefixed: yarn add my-package@https:...
```

The workaround is to prepend the URL with `xlsx@`:

<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
yarn add xlsx@https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>

:::

  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

:::tip pass

[Watch the repo](https://git.sheetjs.com/SheetJS/sheetjs) or subscribe to the
[RSS feed](https://git.sheetjs.com/sheetjs/sheetjs/tags.rss) to be notified when
new versions are released!

:::

:::caution Snyk Bugs

Snyk security tooling may report errors involving "Prototype Pollution":

```
Prototype Pollution [Medium Severity][https://security.snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-XLSX-5457926]
```

As noted in the [Snyk report](https://security.snyk.io/vuln/SNYK-JS-XLSX-5457926):

> The issue is resolved in version 0.19.3

**Snyk is falsely reporting vulnerabilities. It is a bug in the Snyk tooling.**

Until Snyk fixes the bugs, the official recommendation is to
[suppress the warning](https://snyk.io/blog/ignoring-vulnerabilities-with-snyk/).

:::

### Legacy Endpoints

:::danger pass

Older releases are technically available on the public npm registry as `xlsx`,
but the registry is out of date.  The latest version on that registry is 0.18.5

This is a known registry bug

**The SheetJS CDN** https://cdn.sheetjs.com/ **is the authoritative source**
**for SheetJS modules.**

For existing projects, the easiest approach is to uninstall and reinstall:

<Tabs groupId="pm">
  <TabItem value="npm" label="npm">
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
npm rm --save xlsx
npm i --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="pnpm" label="pnpm">
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
pnpm rm xlsx
pnpm install --save https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="yarn" label="Yarn" default>
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
yarn remove xlsx
yarn add https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

When the `xlsx` library is a dependency of a dependency, the `overrides` field
in `package.json` can control module resolution:

<CodeBlock language="json" title="package.json">{`\
{
  // highlight-start
  "overrides": {
    "xlsx": "https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz"
  }
  // highlight-end
}`}
</CodeBlock>

:::

### Vendoring

For general stability, making a local copy of SheetJS modules ("vendoring") is
strongly recommended. Vendoring decouples projects from SheetJS infrastructure.

0) Remove any existing dependency on a project named `xlsx`:

<Tabs groupId="pm">
  <TabItem value="npm" label="npm">
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
npm rm --save xlsx`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="pnpm" label="pnpm">
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
pnpm rm xlsx`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="yarn" label="Yarn" default>
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
yarn remove xlsx`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

<ol start="1"><li><p>Download the tarball (<code parentName="pre">xlsx-{current}.tgz</code>) for the desired version. The current
   version is available at <a href={"https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-" + current + "/xlsx-" + current + ".tgz"}>{"https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-" + current + "/xlsx-" + current + ".tgz"}</a></p></li></ol>

<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
curl -O https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-${current}/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>

2) Create a `vendor` subfolder at the root of your project:

```bash
mkdir -p vendor
```

3) Move the tarball from step (1) to the `vendor` folder:

<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
mv xlsx-${current}.tgz vendor`}
</CodeBlock>

4) If the project is managed with a version control system, add the tarball to
the source repository. The Git VCS supports the `add` subcommand:

<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
git add vendor/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>

5) Install the tarball using a package manager:

<Tabs groupId="pm">
  <TabItem value="npm" label="npm">
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
npm i --save file:vendor/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="pnpm" label="pnpm">
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
pnpm install --save file:vendor/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>
  </TabItem>
  <TabItem value="yarn" label="Yarn" default>
<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
yarn add file:vendor/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>

:::caution pass

Newer releases of Yarn may throw an error:

<CodeBlock language="text">{`\
Usage Error: The file:vendor/xlsx-${current}.tgz string didn't match the required format (package-name@range). Did you perhaps forget to explicitly reference the package name?`}
</CodeBlock>

The workaround is to prepend the URI with `xlsx@`:

<CodeBlock language="bash">{`\
yarn add xlsx@file:vendor/xlsx-${current}.tgz`}
</CodeBlock>

:::

  </TabItem>
</Tabs>

The package will be installed and accessible as `xlsx`.

## Usage

The package supports CommonJS `require` and ESM `import` module systems.

:::info pass

**It is strongly recommended to use CommonJS in NodeJS.**

:::

### CommonJS `require`

By default, the module supports `require` and it will automatically add support
for encodings, streams and file system access:

```js
var XLSX = require("xlsx");
```

### ESM `import`

The package also ships with `xlsx.mjs`, a script compatible with the ECMAScript
module system. When using the ESM build in NodeJS, some dependencies must be
loaded manually.

:::danger ECMAScript Module Limitations

The original ECMAScript module specification only supported top-level imports:

```js
import { Readable } from 'stream';
```

If a module is unavailable, there is no way for scripts to gracefully fail or
ignore the error. This presents an insurmountable challenge for libraries.

To contrast, the SheetJS CommonJS modules gracefully handle missing dependencies
since `require` failures are errors that the library can catch and handle.

---

Patches to the specification added two different solutions to the problem:

- "dynamic imports" will throw errors that can be handled by libraries. Dynamic
imports will taint APIs that do not use Promise-based methods.

```js
/* Readable will be undefined if stream cannot be imported */
const Readable = await (async() => {
  try {
    return (await import("stream"))?.Readable;
  } catch(e) { /* silently ignore error */ }
})();
```

- "import maps" control module resolution, allowing library users to manually
shunt unsupported modules.

**These patches were released after browsers adopted ESM!** A number of browsers
and other platforms support top-level imports but do not support the patches.

---

For the ESM build, there were four unpalatable options:

A) Generate a module script for browsers, a module script for ViteJS, a module
script for [Deno](/docs/getting-started/installation/deno), and a module script
for NodeJS and [BunJS](/docs/getting-started/installation/bun).

B) Remove all optional features, including support for non-English legacy files.

C) Add all optional features, effectively making the features mandatory.

D) Introduce special methods for optional dependency injection.

The SheetJS team chose option (D). NodeJS native modules are still automatically
loaded in the CommonJS build, but NodeJS ESM scripts must now load and pass the
dependencies to the library using special methods.

---

**It is strongly recommended to use CommonJS in NodeJS scripts!**

:::

#### Filesystem Operations

The `set_fs` method accepts a `fs` instance for reading and writing files using
`readFile` and `writeFile`:

```js
import * as XLSX from 'xlsx';

/* load 'fs' for readFile and writeFile support */
import * as fs from 'fs';
XLSX.set_fs(fs);
```

#### Stream Operations

The `set_readable` method accepts a `stream.Readable` instance for use in stream
methods including [`XLSX.stream.to_csv`](/docs/api/stream):

```js
import * as XLSX from 'xlsx';

/* load 'stream' for stream support */
import { Readable } from 'stream';
XLSX.stream.set_readable(Readable);
```

#### Encoding Support

The `set_cptable` method accepts an instance of the SheetJS codepage library for
use in legacy file format processing. The `cpexcel.full.mjs` script must be
manually loaded. `xlsx/dist/cpexcel.full.mjs` can be imported:

```js
import * as XLSX from 'xlsx';

/* load the codepage support library for extended support with older formats  */
import * as cpexcel from 'xlsx/dist/cpexcel.full.mjs';
XLSX.set_cptable(cpexcel);
```

#### NextJS

:::danger pass

`fs` cannot be imported from the top level in NextJS pages. This will not work:

```js
/* it is safe to import the library from the top level */
import { readFile, utils, set_fs } from 'xlsx';
/* it is not safe to import 'fs' from the top level ! */
// highlight-next-line
import * as fs from 'fs'; // this import will fail
set_fs(fs);
```

**This is a design flaw in NextJS!**

:::

For server-side file processing, `fs` should be loaded with a dynamic import
within a lifecycle function:

```js title="index.js"
/* it is safe to import the library from the top level */
import { readFile, utils, set_fs } from 'xlsx';
import { join } from 'path';
import { cwd } from 'process';

export async function getServerSideProps() {
// highlight-next-line
  set_fs(await import("fs")); // dynamically import 'fs' in `getServerSideProps`
  const wb = readFile(join(cwd(), "public", "sheetjs.xlsx"));
  // ...
}
```

The [NextJS demo](/docs/demos/static/nextjs) includes complete examples.