xlsx

Parser and writer for XLSX/XLSM/XLSB files. Cleanroom implementation from the ISO 29500 Office Open XML specifications, [MS-XLSB], and related documents.

Installation

In nodejs:

npm install xlsx

In the browser:

<!-- This is the only file you need (includes xlsx.js and jszip) -->
<script lang="javascript" src="dist/xlsx.core.min.js"></script>

In bower:

bower install js-xlsx

CDNjs automatically pulls the latest version and makes all versions available at http://cdnjs.com/libraries/xlsx

Older versions of this README recommended a more explicit approach:

<!-- JSZip must be included before xlsx.js -->
<script lang="javascript" src="/path/to/jszip.js"></script>
<script lang="javascript" src="/path/to/xlsx.js"></script>

Optional Modules

The nodejs version automatically requires modules for additional features. Some of these modules are rather large in size and are only needed in special circumstances, so they do not ship with the core. For browser use, they must be included directly:

<!-- international support from https://github.com/sheetjs/js-codepage -->
<script src="dist/cpexcel.js"></script>

An appropriate version for each dependency is included in the dist/ directory.

The complete single-file version is generated at dist/xlsx.full.min.js

Parsing Workbooks

For parsing, the first step is to read the file.

• nodejs:

if(typeof require !== 'undefined') XLSX = require('xlsx');
var workbook = XLSX.readFile('test.xlsx');
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */

• ajax:

/* set up XMLHttpRequest */
var url = "test_files/formula_stress_test_ajax.xlsx";
var oReq = new XMLHttpRequest();
oReq.open("GET", url, true);
oReq.responseType = "arraybuffer";

oReq.onload = function(e) {
  var arraybuffer = oReq.response;

  /* convert data to binary string */
  var data = new Uint8Array(arraybuffer);
  var arr = new Array();
  for(var i = 0; i != data.length; ++i) arr[i] = String.fromCharCode(data[i]);
  var bstr = arr.join("");

  /* Call XLSX */
  var workbook = XLSX.read(bstr, {type:"binary"});

  /* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
}

oReq.send();

• html5 drag-and-drop using readAsBinaryString:

/* set up drag-and-drop event */
function handleDrop(e) {
  e.stopPropagation();
  e.preventDefault();
  var files = e.dataTransfer.files;
  var i,f;
  for (i = 0, f = files[i]; i != files.length; ++i) {
    var reader = new FileReader();
    var name = f.name;
    reader.onload = function(e) {
      var data = e.target.result;

      /* if binary string, read with type 'binary' */
      var wb = XLSX.read(data, {type: 'binary'});

      /* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
    };
    reader.readAsBinaryString(f);
  }
}
drop_dom_element.addEventListener('drop', handleDrop, false);

This example walks through every cell of every sheet and dumps the values:

var sheet_name_list = workbook.SheetNames;
sheet_name_list.forEach(function(y) {
  var worksheet = workbook.Sheets[y];
  for (z in worksheet) {
    if(z[0] === '!') continue;
    console.log(y + "!" + z + "=" + JSON.stringify(worksheet[z].v));
  }
});

Complete examples:

• http://oss.sheetjs.com/js-xlsx/ HTML5 File API / Base64 Text / Web Workers

Note that older versions of IE does not support HTML5 File API, so the base64 mode is provided for testing. On OSX you can get the base64 encoding with:

$ <target_file.xlsx base64 | pbcopy

• http://oss.sheetjs.com/js-xlsx/ajax.html XMLHttpRequest

• https://github.com/SheetJS/js-xlsx/blob/master/bin/xlsx.njs nodejs

The nodejs version installs a binary xlsx which can read XLSX/XLSM/XLSB files and output the contents in various formats. The source is available at xlsx.njs in the bin directory.

Some helper functions in XLSX.utils generate different views of the sheets:

• XLSX.utils.sheet_to_csv generates CSV
• XLSX.utils.sheet_to_json generates an array of objects
• XLSX.utils.get_formulae generates a list of formulae

Writing Workbooks

Assuming workbook is a workbook object, just call write:

• nodejs write to file:

/* output format determined by filename */
XLSX.writeFile(workbook, 'out.xlsx');

• write to binary string (using FileSaver.js)

/* bookType can be 'xlsx' or 'xlsm' or 'xlsb' */
var wopts = { bookType:'xlsx', bookSST:true, type:'binary' };

var wbout = XLSX.write(workbook,wopts);

function s2ab(s) {
  var buf = new ArrayBuffer(s.length);
  var view = new Uint8Array(buf);
  for (var i=0; i!=s.length; ++i) view[i] = s.charCodeAt(i) & 0xFF;
  return buf;
}

saveAs(new Blob([s2ab(wbout)],{type:""}), "test.xlsx")

Complete examples:

• http://sheetjs.com/demos/writexlsx.html generates a simple file
• http://git.io/WEK88Q writing an array of arrays in nodejs

Interface

XLSX is the exposed variable in the browser and the exported nodejs variable

XLSX.read(data, read_opts) attempts to parse data.

XLSX.readFile(filename, read_opts) attempts to read filename and parse.

XLSX.write(wb, write_opts) attempts to write the workbook wb

XLSX.writeFile(wb, filename, write_opts) attempts to write wb to filename

Cell Object Description

js-xlsx conforms to the Common Spreadsheet Format (CSF):

.SheetNames is an ordered list of the sheets in the workbook

.Sheets[sheetname] returns a data structure representing the sheet. Each key that does not start with ! corresponds to a cell (using A-1 notation).

.Sheets[sheetname][address] returns the specified cell:

• .v : the raw value of the cell
• .w : the formatted text of the cell (if applicable)
• .t : the type of the cell (constrained to the enumeration ST_CellType as documented in page 4215 of ISO/IEC 29500-1:2012(E) )
• .f : the formula of the cell (if applicable)
• .r : the rich text encoding of a cell text (if applicable)
• .h : an HTML rendering of the rich text (if applicable)
• .c : comments associated with the cell
• .z : the number format string associated with the cell (if requested)
• .l : the hyperlink of the cell (.Target holds link, .tooltip is tooltip)
• .s : the style/theme of the cell (if applicable)

For dates, .v holds the raw date code from the sheet and .w holds the text

Parsing Options

The exported read and readFile functions accept an options argument:

Option Name	Default	Description
cellFormula	true	Save formulae to the .f field
cellHTML	true	Parse rich text and save HTML to the .h field
cellNF	false	Save number format string to the .z field
cellStyles	false	Save style/theme info to the .s field
sheetStubs	false	Create cell objects for stub cells
sheetRows	0	If >0, read the first sheetRows rows **
bookDeps	false	If true, parse calculation chains
bookFiles	false	If true, add raw files to book object **
bookProps	false	If true, only parse enough to get book metadata **
bookSheets	false	If true, only parse enough to get the sheet names
bookVBA	false	If true, expose vbaProject.bin to vbaraw field **

• Even if cellNF is false, formatted text (.w) will be generated
• In some cases, sheets may be parsed even if bookSheets is false.
• bookSheets and bookProps combine to give both sets of information
• Deps will be an empty object if bookDeps is falsy
• bookFiles adds a keys array (paths in the ZIP) and a files hash (whose keys are paths and values are objects representing the files)
• sheetRows-1 rows will be generated when looking at the JSON object output (since the header row is counted as a row when parsing the data)
• bookVBA merely exposes the raw vba object. It does not parse the data.

The defaults are enumerated in bits/84_defaults.js

Writing Options

The exported write and writeFile functions accept an options argument:

Option Name	Default	Description
bookSST	false	Generate Shared String Table **
bookType	'xlsx'	Type of Workbook ("xlsx" or "xlsm" or "xlsb")

• bookSST is slower and more memory intensive, but has better compatibility with iOS Numbers
• bookType = 'xlsb' is stubbed and far from complete
• The raw data is the only thing guaranteed to be saved. Formulae, formatting, and other niceties may not be serialized (pending CSF standardization)

Tested Environments

• NodeJS 0.8, 0.10 (latest release)
• IE 6/7/8/9/10 using Base64 mode (IE10/11 using HTML5 mode)
• FF 18 using Base64 or HTML5 mode
• Chrome 24 using Base64 or HTML5 mode

Tests utilize the mocha testing framework. Travis-CI and Sauce Labs links:

• https://travis-ci.org/SheetJS/js-xlsx for XLSX module in nodejs
• https://travis-ci.org/SheetJS/SheetJS.github.io for XLS* modules
• https://saucelabs.com/u/sheetjs for XLS* modules using Sauce Labs

Test Files

Test files are housed in another repo.

Running make init will refresh the test_files submodule and get the files.

Testing

make test will run the nodejs-based tests. To run the in-browser tests, clone the oss.sheetjs.com repo and replace the xlsx.js file (then fire up the browser and go to stress.html):

$ cp xlsx.js ../SheetJS.github.io
$ cd ../SheetJS.github.io
$ simplehttpserver # or "python -mSimpleHTTPServer" or "serve"
$ open -a Chromium.app http://localhost:8000/stress.html

For a much smaller test, run make test_misc.

Contributing

Due to the precarious nature of the Open Specifications Promise, it is very important to ensure code is cleanroom. Consult CONTRIBUTING.md

XLS Support

XLS is available in js-xls.

License

Please consult the attached LICENSE file for details. All rights not explicitly granted by the Apache 2.0 license are reserved by the Original Author.

It is the opinion of the Original Author that this code conforms to the terms of the Microsoft Open Specifications Promise, falling under the same terms as OpenOffice (which is governed by the Apache License v2). Given the vagaries of the promise, the Original Author makes no legal claim that in fact end users are protected from future actions. It is highly recommended that, for commercial uses, you consult a lawyer before proceeding.

References

ISO/IEC 29500:2012(E) "Information technology — Document description and processing languages — Office Open XML File Formats"

OSP-covered specifications:

• [MS-XLSB]: Excel (.xlsb) Binary File Format
• [MS-XLSX]: Excel (.xlsx) Extensions to the Office Open XML SpreadsheetML File Format
• [MS-OE376]: Office Implementation Information for ECMA-376 Standards Support
• [MS-XLDM]: Spreadsheet Data Model File Format

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