docs.sheetjs.com/docz/docs/03-demos/04-grid.md

title
Data Grids and Tables

Various JavaScript UI components provide a more interactive editing experience. Most are able to interchange with arrays of arrays or arrays of data objects. This demo focuses on a few open source data grids.

:::note

SheetJS Pro offers additional features like styling and images. The UI tools typically support many of these advanced features.

To eliminate any confusion, the live examples linked from this page demonstrate SheetJS Community Edition data interchange.

:::

Managed Lifecycle

Many UI components tend to manage the entire lifecycle, providing methods to import and export data.

The sheet_to_json utility function generates arrays of objects, which is suitable for a number of libraries. When more advanced shapes are needed, it is easier to process an array of arrays.

x-spreadsheet

With a familiar UI, x-spreadsheet is an excellent choice for developers looking for a modern editor.

Click here for a live integration demo.

Full Exposition (click to show)

Obtaining the Library

The x-data-spreadsheet NodeJS packages include a minified script that can be directly inserted as a script tag. The unpkg CDN also serves this script:

<!-- x-spreadsheet stylesheet -->
<link rel="stylesheet" href="https://unpkg.com/x-data-spreadsheet/dist/xspreadsheet.css"/>
<!-- x-spreadsheet library -->
<script src="https://unpkg.com/x-data-spreadsheet/dist/xspreadsheet.js"></script>

Previewing and Editing Data

The HTML document needs a container element:

<div id="gridctr"></div>

Grid initialization is a one-liner:

var grid = x_spreadsheet(document.getElementById("gridctr"));

x-spreadsheet handles the entire edit cycle. No intervention is necessary.

SheetJS and x-spreadsheet

The integration library can be downloaded from the SheetJS CDN:

Development Use

Production Use

When used in a browser tag, it exposes two functions: xtos and stox.

• stox(worksheet) returns a data structure suitable for grid.loadData
• xtos(data) accepts the result of grid.getData and generates a workbook

Reading Data

The following snippet fetches a spreadsheet and loads the grid:

(async() => {
  const ab = await (await fetch("https://sheetjs.com/pres.numbers")).arrayBuffer();
  grid.loadData(stox(XLSX.read(ab)));
})();

The same pattern can be used in file input elements and other data sources.

Writing Data

The following snippet exports the grid data to a file:

/* build workbook from the grid data */
XLSX.writeFile(xtos(grid.getData()), "SheetJS.xlsx");

Additional Features

This demo barely scratches the surface. The underlying grid component includes many additional features that work with SheetJS Pro.

Canvas DataGrid

After extensive testing, canvas-datagrid stood out as a very high-performance grid with an incredibly simple API.

Click here for a live integration demo.

Full Exposition (click to show)

Obtaining the Library

The canvas-datagrid NodeJS packages include a minified script that can be directly inserted as a script tag. The unpkg CDN also serves this script:

<script src="https://unpkg.com/canvas-datagrid/dist/canvas-datagrid.js"></script>

Previewing Data

The HTML document needs a container element:

<div id="gridctr"></div>

Grid initialization is a one-liner:

var grid = canvasDatagrid({
  parentNode: document.getElementById('gridctr'),
  data: []
});

For large data sets, it's necessary to constrain the size of the grid.

grid.style.height = '100%';
grid.style.width = '100%';

Once the workbook is read and the worksheet is selected, assigning the data variable automatically updates the view:

grid.data = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_json(ws, {header:1});

This demo previews the first worksheet.

Editing

canvas-datagrid handles the entire edit cycle. No intervention is necessary.

Saving Data

grid.data is immediately readable and can be converted back to a worksheet. Some versions return an array-like object without the length, so a little bit of preparation may be needed:

/* converts an array of array-like objects into an array of arrays */
function prep(arr) {
  var out = [];
  for(var i = 0; i < arr.length; ++i) {
    if(!arr[i]) continue;
    if(Array.isArray(arr[i])) { out[i] = arr[i]; continue };
    var o = new Array();
    Object.keys(arr[i]).forEach(function(k) { o[+k] = arr[i][k] });
    out[i] = o;
  }
  return out;
}

/* build worksheet from the grid data */
var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet(prep(grid.data));

/* build up workbook */
var wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();
XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, 'SheetJS');

/* generate download */
XLSX.writeFile(wb, "SheetJS.xlsx");

Additional Features

This demo barely scratches the surface. The underlying grid component includes many additional features including massive data streaming, sorting and styling.

Tabulator

Tabulator includes deep support through a special Export button. It handles the SheetJS operations internally.

Angular UI Grid

:::warning

This UI Grid is for AngularJS, not the modern Angular. New projects should not use AngularJS. This demo is included for legacy applications.

The AngularJS demo covers more general strategies.

:::

Click here for a live integration demo.

Notes (click to show)

The library does not provide any way to modify the import button, so the demo includes a simple directive for a File Input HTML element. It also includes a sample service for export which adds an item to the export menu.

The demo SheetJSImportDirective follows the prescription from the README for File input controls using readAsArrayBuffer, converting to a suitable representation and updating the scope.

SheetJSExportService exposes export functions for XLSB and XLSX. Other file formats can be exported by changing the bookType variable. It grabs values from the grid, builds an array of arrays, generates a workbook and forces a download. By setting the filename and sheetname options in the ui-grid options, the output can be controlled.

Framework Lifecycle

For modern frameworks like React, data grids tend to follow the framework state and idioms. The same sheet_to_json and json_to_sheet / aoa_to_sheet methods are used, but they pull from a shared state object that can be mutated with other buttons and components on the page.

React Data Grid

:::note

This demo was tested against react-data-grid 7.0.0-beta.15, React 18.2.0, and create-react-app 5.0.1 on 2022 August 16.

:::

react-data-grid is a data grid built for React. react-data-grid powers https://sheet.js.org/

A complete example is included below.

Rows and Columns state

react-data-grid state consists of an Array of column metadata and an Array of row objects. Typically both are defined in state:

import DataGrid, { Column } from "react-data-grid";

export default function App() {
  const [rows, setRows] = useState([]);
  const [columns, setColumns] = useState([]);

  return ( <DataGrid columns={columns} rows={rows} onRowsChange={setRows} /> );
}

The most generic data representation is an array of arrays. To sate the grid, columns must be objects whose key property is the index converted to string:

import { WorkSheet, utils } from 'xlsx';
import { textEditor, Column } from "react-data-grid";

type Row = any[];
type AOAColumn = Column<Row>;
type RowCol = { rows: Row[]; columns: AOAColumn[]; };

function ws_to_rdg(ws: WorkSheet): RowCol {
  /* create an array of arrays */
  const rows = utils.sheet_to_json(ws, { header: 1 });

  /* create column array */
  const range = utils.decode_range(ws["!ref"]||"A1");
  const columns = Array.from({ length: range.e.c + 1 }, (_, i) => ({
    key: String(i), // RDG will access row["0"], row["1"], etc
    name: utils.encode_col(i), // the column labels will be A, B, etc
    editor: textEditor // enable cell editing
  }));

  return { rows, columns }; // these can be fed to setRows / setColumns
}

In the other direction, a worksheet can be generated with aoa_to_sheet:

:::caution

When the demo was last refreshed, row array objects were preserved. This was not the case in a later release. The row arrays must be re-created.

The snippet defines a arrayify function that creates arrays if necessary.

:::

import { WorkSheet, utils } from 'xlsx';

type Row = any[];

// highlight-start
function arrayify(rows: any[]): Row[] {
  return rows.map(row => {
    var length = Object.keys(row).length;
    for(; length > 0; --length) if(row[length-1] != null) break;
    return Array.from({length, ...row});
  });
}
// highlight-end

function rdg_to_ws(rows: Row[]): WorkSheet {
  return utils.aoa_to_sheet(arrayify(rows));
}

import { WorkSheet, utils } from 'xlsx';

type Row = any[];

function rdg_to_ws(rows: Row[]): WorkSheet {
  return utils.aoa_to_sheet(rows);
}

RDG Demo

Complete Example (click to show)

1. Create a new TypeScript create-react-app app:

npx create-react-app sheetjs-cra --template typescript
cd sheetjs-cra

2. Install dependencies:

npm i -S https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-latest/xlsx-latest.tgz react-data-grid

3. Download App.tsx and replace src/App.tsx.

4. run npm start. When you load the page in the browser, it will attempt to fetch https://sheetjs.com/pres.numbers and load the data.

The following screenshot was taken from the demo:

Material UI Data Grid

Material UI Data Grid and React Data Grid share many state patterns and idioms. Differences from "React Data Grid" will be highlighted.

A complete example is included below.

:::warning

Despite presenting an editable UI, Material UI Data Grid version 5.17.0 does not update the state when values are changed. The demo uses the React Data Grid editable structure in the hopes that a future version does support state.

Until the issues are resolved, "React Data Grid" is an excellent choice.

:::

Rows and Columns State

The analogue of Column is GridColDef. The simple structure looks like:

// highlight-next-line
import { DataGrid, GridColDef } from "@mui/x-data-grid";

export default function App() {
  const [rows, setRows] = useState([]);
  const [columns, setColumns] = useState([]);

  return ( <DataGrid columns={columns} rows={rows} onRowsChange={setRows} /> );
}

The most generic data representation is an array of arrays. To sate the grid, columns must be objects whose field property is the index converted to string:

import { WorkSheet, utils } from 'xlsx';
// highlight-next-line
import { GridColDef } from "@mui/x-data-grid";

type Row = any[];
type RowCol = { rows: Row[]; columns: GridColDef[]; };

function ws_to_muidg(ws: WorkSheet): RowCol {
  /* create an array of arrays */
  const rows = utils.sheet_to_json(ws, { header: 1 });

  /* create column array */
  const range = utils.decode_range(ws["!ref"]||"A1");
  const columns = Array.from({ length: range.e.c + 1 }, (_, i) => ({
    // highlight-start
    field: String(i), // MUIDG will access row["0"], row["1"], etc
    headerName: utils.encode_col(i), // the column labels will be A, B, etc
    editable: true // enable cell editing
    // highlight-end
  }));

  return { rows, columns }; // these can be fed to setRows / setColumns
}

In the other direction, a worksheet can be generated with aoa_to_sheet:

:::caution

x-data-grid does not properly preserve row array objects, so the row arrays must be re-created. The snippet defines a arrayify function.

:::

import { WorkSheet, utils } from 'xlsx';

type Row = any[];

// highlight-start
function arrayify(rows: any[]): Row[] {
  return rows.map(row => {
    var length = Object.keys(row).length;
    for(; length > 0; --length) if(row[length-1] != null) break;
    return Array.from({length, ...row});
  });
}
// highlight-end

function muidg_to_ws(rows: Row[]): WorkSheet {
  return utils.aoa_to_sheet(arrayify(rows));
}

MUIDG Demo

Complete Example (click to show)

0. Follow the React Data Grid demo and generate the sample app.

1. Install dependencies:

npm i -S https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-latest/xlsx-latest.tgz @mui/x-data-grid @emotion/react @emotion/styled

2. Download App.tsx and replace src/App.tsx.

3. run npm start. When you load the page in the browser, it will attempt to fetch https://sheetjs.com/pres.numbers and load the data.

vue3-table-lite

:::note

This demo was tested against vue3-table-lite 1.2.4, VueJS 3.2.37, ViteJS 3.0.7, and @vitejs/plugin-vue 3.0.3 on 2022 August 18

:::

vue3-table-lite is a VueJS data grid.

A complete example is included below.

Rows and Columns Bindings

vue3-table-lite presents two attribute bindings: an array of column metadata (columns) and an array of objects representing the displayed data (rows). Typically both are ref objects:

<script setup lang="ts">
import { ref } from "vue";
import VueTableLite from "vue3-table-lite/ts";

/* rows */
type Row = any[];
const rows = ref<Row[]>([]);

/* columns */
type Column = { field: string; label: string; };
const columns = ref<Column[]>([]);
</script>

<template>
  <vue-table-lite :columns="columns" :rows="rows"></vue-table-lite>
</template>

These can be mutated through the value property in VueJS lifecycle methods:

import { onMounted } from "vue";
onMounted(() => {
  columns.value = [ { field: "name", label: "Names" }];
  rows.value = [ { name: "SheetJS" }, { name: "VueJS" } ];
})

The most generic data representation is an array of arrays. To sate the grid, columns must be objects whose field property is the index converted to string:

import { ref } from "vue";
import { utils } from 'xlsx';

/* generate row and column data */
function ws_to_vte(ws) {
  /* create an array of arrays */
  const rows = utils.sheet_to_json(ws, { header: 1 });

  /* create column array */
  const range = utils.decode_range(ws["!ref"]||"A1");
  const columns = Array.from({ length: range.e.c + 1 }, (_, i) => ({
    field: String(i), // VTE will access row["0"], row["1"], etc
    label: utils.encode_col(i), // the column labels will be A, B, etc
  }));

  return { rows, columns };
}

const rows = ref([]);
const columns = ref([]);

/* update refs */
function update_refs(ws) {
  const data = ws_to_vte(ws);
  rows.value = data.rows;
  columns.value = data.columns;
}

In the other direction, a worksheet can be generated with aoa_to_sheet:

import { utils } from 'xlsx';

const rows = ref([]);

function vte_to_ws(rows) {
  return utils.aoa_to_sheet(rows.value);
}

VueJS Demo

Complete Example (click to show)

1. Create a new ViteJS App using the VueJS + TypeScript template:

npm create vite@latest sheetjs-vue -- --template vue-ts
cd sheetjs-vue

2. Install dependencies:

npm i
npm i -S https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-latest/xlsx-latest.tgz vue3-table-lite

3. Download src/App.vue and replace the contents:

cd src
rm -f App.vue
curl -LO https://docs.sheetjs.com/vtl/App.vue
cd ..

4. run npm run dev. When you load the page in the browser, it will try to fetch https://sheetjs.com/pres.numbers and load the data.

Standard HTML Tables

Many UI components present styled HTML tables. Data can be extracted from the tables given a reference to the underlying TABLE element:

function export_html_table(table) {
  const wb = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(table);
  XLSX.writeFile(wb, "HTMLTable.xlsx");
} // yes, it's that easy!

:::info

SheetJS CE is focused on data preservation and will extract values from tables.

SheetJS Pro offers styling support when reading from TABLE elements and when writing to XLSX and other spreadsheet formats.

:::

Fixed Tables

When the page has a raw HTML table, the easiest solution is to attach an id:

<table id="xport"><tr><td>SheetJS</td></tr></table>
<script src="https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-latest/package/dist/shim.min.js"></script>
<script src="https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-latest/package/dist/xlsx.full.min.js"></script>
<script>
/* as long as this script appears after the table, it will be visible */
var tbl = document.getElementById("xport");
const wb = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(tbl);
XLSX.writeFile(wb, "HTMLTable.xlsx");
</script>

When programmatically constructing the table in the browser, retain a reference:

var tbl = document.createElement("TABLE");
tbl.insertRow(0).insertCell(0).innerHTML = "SheetJS";
document.body.appendChild(tbl);
const wb = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(tbl);
XLSX.writeFile(wb, "HTMLFlicker.xlsx");
document.body.removeChild(tbl);

React

The typical solution is to attach a Ref to the table element. The current property will be a live reference which plays nice with table_to_book:

// highlight-next-line
import { useRef } from "react";

export default function ReactTable() {
// highlight-next-line
  const tbl = useRef(null);

  return ( <>
    <button onClick={() => {
      // highlight-next-line
      const wb = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(tbl.current);
      XLSX.writeFile(wb, "ReactTable.xlsx");
    }}>Export</button>
    // highlight-next-line
    <table ref={tbl}>
    {/* ... TR and TD/TH elements ... */}
    </table>
  </>);
}

Material UI Table

The Table component abstracts the <table> element in HTML.

import TableContainer from '@mui/material/TableContainer';
import Table from '@mui/material/Table';
// ...
// highlight-next-line
import { useRef } from "react";

// ...
export default function BasicTable() {
// highlight-next-line
  const tbl = useRef<HTMLTableElement>(null);
  return (<>
    <button onClick={() => {
      const wb = utils.table_to_book(tbl.current);
      writeFileXLSX(wb, "SheetJSMaterialUI.xlsx");
    }}>Export</button>
    <TableContainer {...}>
// highlight-next-line
      <Table {...} ref={tbl}>
      {/* ... material ui table machinations ... */}
      </Table>
    </TableContainer>
  <>);
}

Complete Example (click to show)

1. Create a new TypeScript create-react-app app:

npx create-react-app sheetjs-mui --template typescript
cd sheetjs-mui

2. Install dependencies:

npm i -S https://cdn.sheetjs.com/xlsx-latest/xlsx-latest.tgz @mui/material

3. Replace src/App.tsx with the following code. This is based on the official Material UI Table example. Differences are highlighted.

// highlight-start
import React, { useEffect, useState, useRef, ChangeEvent } from "react";
import { utils, writeFileXLSX } from 'xlsx';
// highlight-end
import Table from '@mui/material/Table';
import TableBody from '@mui/material/TableBody';
import TableCell from '@mui/material/TableCell';
import TableContainer from '@mui/material/TableContainer';
import TableHead from '@mui/material/TableHead';
import TableRow from '@mui/material/TableRow';
import Paper from '@mui/material/Paper';

function createData(
  name: string,
  calories: number,
  fat: number,
  carbs: number,
  protein: number,
) {
  return { name, calories, fat, carbs, protein };
}

const rows = [
  createData('Frozen yoghurt', 159, 6.0, 24, 4.0),
  createData('Ice cream sandwich', 237, 9.0, 37, 4.3),
  createData('Eclair', 262, 16.0, 24, 6.0),
  createData('Cupcake', 305, 3.7, 67, 4.3),
  createData('Gingerbread', 356, 16.0, 49, 3.9),
];

export default function BasicTable() {
  // highlight-start
  const tbl = useRef<HTMLTableElement>(null);
  return ( <>
    <button onClick={() => {
      const wb = utils.table_to_book(tbl.current);
      writeFileXLSX(wb, "SheetJSMaterialUI.xlsx");
    }}>Export</button>
    // highlight-end
    <TableContainer component={Paper}>
      // highlight-next-line
      <Table sx={{ minWidth: 650 }} aria-label="simple table" ref={tbl}>
        <TableHead>
          <TableRow>
            <TableCell>Dessert (100g serving)</TableCell>
            <TableCell align="right">Calories</TableCell>
            <TableCell align="right">Fat&nbsp;(g)</TableCell>
            <TableCell align="right">Carbs&nbsp;(g)</TableCell>
            <TableCell align="right">Protein&nbsp;(g)</TableCell>
          </TableRow>
        </TableHead>
        <TableBody>
          {rows.map((row) => (
            <TableRow
              key={row.name}
              sx={{ '&:last-child td, &:last-child th': { border: 0 } }}
            >
              <TableCell component="th" scope="row">
                {row.name}
              </TableCell>
              <TableCell align="right">{row.calories}</TableCell>
              <TableCell align="right">{row.fat}</TableCell>
              <TableCell align="right">{row.carbs}</TableCell>
              <TableCell align="right">{row.protein}</TableCell>
            </TableRow>
          ))}
        </TableBody>
      </Table>
    </TableContainer>
    // highlight-next-line
  </> );
}

4. run npm start. Click the "Export" button and inspect the generated file.