#### Row and Column Properties
Format Support (click to show) **Row Properties**: XLSX/M, XLSB, BIFF8 XLS, XLML, SYLK, DOM, ODS **Column Properties**: XLSX/M, XLSB, BIFF8 XLS, XLML, SYLK, DOM
Row and Column properties are not extracted by default when reading from a file and are not persisted by default when writing to a file. The option `cellStyles: true` must be passed to the relevant read or write function. _Column Properties_ The `!cols` array in each worksheet, if present, is a collection of `ColInfo` objects which have the following properties: ```typescript 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 */ level?: number; // 0-indexed outline / group level MDW?: number; // Excel's "Max Digit Width" unit, always integral }; ``` _Row Properties_ The `!rows` array in each worksheet, if present, is a collection of `RowInfo` objects which have the following properties: ```typescript 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 }; ``` _Outline / Group Levels Convention_ The Excel UI displays the base outline level as `1` and the max level as `8`. Following JS conventions, SheetJS uses 0-indexed outline levels wherein the base outline level is `0` and the max level is `7`.
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) _Row Heights_ 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 _Column Widths_ 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