SheetJS js-xlsx

Parser and writer for various spreadsheet formats. Pure-JS cleanroom implementation from official specifications, related documents, and test files. Emphasis on parsing and writing robustness, cross-format feature compatibility with a unified JS representation, and ES3/ES5 browser compatibility back to IE6.

This is the community version. We also offer a pro version with performance enhancements, additional features by request, and dedicated support.

Pro Version

Commercial Support

Rendered Documentation

In-Browser Demos

Source Code

Issues and Bug Reports

Other General Support Issues

File format support for known spreadsheet data formats:

Browser Test

Table of Contents

Installation

In the browser, just add a script tag:

<script lang="javascript" src="dist/xlsx.full.min.js"></script>

With npm:

$ npm install xlsx

With bower:

$ bower install js-xlsx

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

JS Ecosystem Demos

The demos directory includes sample projects for:

• angular
• browserify
• Adobe ExtendScript
• phantomjs
• requirejs
• systemjs
• webpack

Optional Modules

The node 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 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

Webpack and browserify builds include optional modules by default. Webpack can be configured to remove support with resolve.alias:

  /* uncomment the lines below to remove support */
  resolve: {
    alias: { "./dist/cpexcel.js": "" } // <-- omit international support
  }

ECMAScript 5 Compatibility

Since xlsx.js uses ES5 functions like Array#forEach, older browsers require Polyfills. This repo and the gh-pages branch include a shim

To use the shim, add the shim before the script tag that loads xlsx.js:

<script type="text/javascript" src="/path/to/shim.js"></script>

Philosophy

Parsing Workbooks

For parsing, the first step is to read the file. This involves acquiring the data and feeding it into the library. Here are a few common scenarios:

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

var worksheet = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(document.getElementById('tableau'));
/* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */

/* 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();

/* processing array buffers, only required for readAsArrayBuffer */
function fixdata(data) {
  var o = "", l = 0, w = 10240;
  for(; l<data.byteLength/w; ++l) o+=String.fromCharCode.apply(null,new Uint8Array(data.slice(l*w,l*w+w)));
  o+=String.fromCharCode.apply(null, new Uint8Array(data.slice(l*w)));
  return o;
}

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

      var workbook;
      if(rABS) {
        /* if binary string, read with type 'binary' */
        workbook = XLSX.read(data, {type: 'binary'});
      } else {
        /* if array buffer, convert to base64 */
        var arr = fixdata(data);
        workbook = XLSX.read(btoa(arr), {type: 'base64'});
      }

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

/* fixdata and rABS are defined in the drag and drop example */
function handleFile(e) {
  var files = e.target.files;
  var i,f;
  for (i = 0; i != files.length; ++i) {
    f = files[i];
    var reader = new FileReader();
    var name = f.name;
    reader.onload = function(e) {
      var data = e.target.result;

      var workbook;
      if(rABS) {
        /* if binary string, read with type 'binary' */
        workbook = XLSX.read(data, {type: 'binary'});
      } else {
        /* if array buffer, convert to base64 */
        var arr = fixdata(data);
        workbook = XLSX.read(btoa(arr), {type: 'base64'});
      }

      /* DO SOMETHING WITH workbook HERE */
    };
    reader.readAsBinaryString(f);
  }
}
input_dom_element.addEventListener('change', handleFile, false);

Complete Examples

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

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

$ <target_file base64 | pbcopy

On Windows XP and up you can get the base64 encoding using certutil:

> certutil -encode target_file target_file.b64

(note: You have to open the file and remove the header and footer lines)

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

Note on Streaming Read

The most common and interesting formats (XLS, XLSX/M, XLSB, ODS) are ultimately ZIP or CFB containers of files. Neither format puts the directory structure at the beginning of the file: ZIP files place the Central Directory records at the end of the logical file, while CFB files can place the FAT structure anywhere in the file! As a result, to properly handle these formats, a streaming function would have to buffer the entire file before commencing. That belies the expectations of streaming, so we do not provide any streaming read API. If you really want to stream, there are node modules like concat-stream that will do the buffering for you.

Working with the Workbook

The full object format is described later in this README.

This example extracts the value stored in cell A1 from the first worksheet:

var first_sheet_name = workbook.SheetNames[0];
var address_of_cell = 'A1';

/* Get worksheet */
var worksheet = workbook.Sheets[first_sheet_name];

/* Find desired cell */
var desired_cell = worksheet[address_of_cell];

/* Get the value */
var desired_value = (desired_cell ? desired_cell.v : undefined);

Complete Examples

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

The node version installs a command line tool xlsx which can read spreadsheet 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.sheet_to_formulae generates a list of formulae

Writing Workbooks

For writing, the first step is to generate output data. The helper functions write and writeFile will produce the data in various formats suitable for dissemination. The second step is to actual share the data with the end point. Assuming workbook is a workbook object:

/* output format determined by filename */
XLSX.writeFile(workbook, 'out.xlsx');
/* at this point, out.xlsx is a file that you can distribute */

/* bookType can be any supported output type */ 
var wopts = { bookType:'xlsx', bookSST:false, 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;
}

/* the saveAs call downloads a file on the local machine */
saveAs(new Blob([s2ab(wbout)],{type:"application/octet-stream"}), "test.xlsx");

Complete Examples

• http://sheetjs.com/demos/table.html exporting an HTML table
• http://sheetjs.com/demos/writexlsx.html generates a simple file

Streaming Write

The streaming write functions are available in the XLSX.stream object. They take the same arguments as the normal write functions but return a readable stream. They are only exposed in node.

• XLSX.stream.to_csv is the streaming version of XLSX.utils.sheet_to_csv.
• XLSX.stream.to_html is the streaming version of the HTML output type.

https://github.com/sheetjs/sheetaki pipes write streams to nodejs response.

Interface

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

XLSX.version is the version of the library (added by the build script).

XLSX.SSF is an embedded version of the format library.

Parsing functions

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

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

Parse options are described in the Parsing Options section.

Writing functions

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

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

XLSX.writeFileAsync(filename, wb, o, cb) attempts to write wb to filename. If o is omitted, the writer will use the third argument as the callback.

XLSX.stream contains a set of streaming write functions.

Write options are described in the Writing Options section.

Utilities

Utilities are available in the XLSX.utils object:

Importing:

• aoa_to_sheet converts an array of arrays of JS data to a worksheet.
• json_to_sheet converts an array of JS objects to a worksheet.

Exporting:

• sheet_to_json converts a worksheet object to an array of JSON objects.
• sheet_to_csv generates delimiter-separated-values output.
• sheet_to_formulae generates a list of the formulae (with value fallbacks).

These utilities are described in Utility Functions below.

Cell and cell address manipulation:

• format_cell generates the text value for a cell (using number formats)
• {en,de}code_{row,col} convert between 0-indexed rows/cols and A1 forms.
• {en,de}code_cell converts cell addresses
• {en,de}code_range converts cell ranges

Common Spreadsheet Format

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

General Structures

Cell address objects are stored as {c:C, r:R} where C and R are 0-indexed column and row numbers, respectively. For example, the cell address B5 is represented by the object {c:1, r:4}.

Cell range objects are stored as {s:S, e:E} where S is the first cell and E is the last cell in the range. The ranges are inclusive. For example, the range A3:B7 is represented by the object {s:{c:0, r:2}, e:{c:1, r:6}}. Utils use the following pattern to walk each of the cells in a range:

for(var R = range.s.r; R <= range.e.r; ++R) {
  for(var C = range.s.c; C <= range.e.c; ++C) {
    var cell_address = {c:C, r:R};
  }
}

Cell Object

Built-in export utilities (such as the CSV exporter) will use the w text if it is available. To change a value, be sure to delete cell.w (or set it to undefined) before attempting to export. The utilities will regenerate the w text from the number format (cell.z) and the raw value if possible.

The actual array formula is stored in the f field of the first cell in the array range. Other cells in the range will omit the f field.

Data Types

The raw value is stored in the v field, interpreted based on the t field.

Type b is the Boolean type. v is interpreted according to JS truth tables.

Type e is the Error type. v holds the number and w holds the common name:

Type n is the Number type. This includes all forms of data that Excel stores as numbers, such as dates/times and Boolean fields. Excel exclusively uses data that can be fit in an IEEE754 floating point number, just like JS Number, so the v field holds the raw number. The w field holds formatted text. Dates are stored as numbers by default and converted with XLSX.SSF.parse_date_code.

Type d is the Date type, generated only when the option cellDates is passed. Since JSON does not have a natural Date type, parsers are generally expected to store ISO 8601 Date strings like you would get from date.toISOString(). On the other hand, writers and exporters should be able to handle date strings and JS Date objects. Note that Excel disregards timezone modifiers and treats all dates in the local timezone. js-xlsx does not correct for this error.

Type s is the String type. v should be explicitly stored as a string to avoid possible confusion.

Type z represents blank stub cells. These do not have any data or type, and are not processed by any of the core library functions. By default these cells will not be generated; the parser sheetStubs option must be set to true.

Dates

By default, Excel stores dates as numbers with a format code that specifies date processing. For example, the date 19-Feb-17 is stored as the number 42785 with a number format of d-mmm-yy. The SSF module understands number formats and performs the appropriate conversion.

XLSX also supports a special date type d where the data is an ISO 8601 date string. The formatter converts the date back to a number.

The default behavior for all parsers is to generate number cells. Setting cellDates to true will force the generators to store dates.

Sheet Objects

Each key that does not start with ! maps to a cell (using A-1 notation)

sheet[address] returns the cell object for the specified address.

Special sheet keys (accessible as sheet[key], each starting with !):

• sheet['!ref']: A-1 based range representing the sheet range. Functions that work with sheets should use this parameter to determine the range. Cells that are assigned outside of the range are not processed. In particular, when writing a sheet by hand, cells outside of the range are not included

  Functions that handle sheets should test for the presence of !ref field. If the !ref is omitted or is not a valid range, functions are free to treat the sheet as empty or attempt to guess the range. The standard utilities that ship with this library treat sheets as empty (for example, the CSV output is empty string).

  When reading a worksheet with the sheetRows property set, the ref parameter will use the restricted range. The original range is set at ws['!fullref']

• sheet['!margins']: Object representing the page margins. The default values follow Excel's "normal" preset. Excel also has a "wide" and a "narrow" preset but they are stored as raw measurements. The main properties are listed below:

/* Set worksheet sheet to "normal" */
sheet["!margins"] = { left:0.7, right:0.7, top:0.75, bottom:0.75, header:0.3, footer:0.3 }
/* Set worksheet sheet to "wide" */
sheet["!margins"] = { left:1.0, right:1.0, top:1.0, bottom:1.0, header:0.5, footer:0.5 }
/* Set worksheet sheet to "narrow" */
sheet["!margins"] = { left:0.25, right:0.25, top:0.75, bottom:0.75, header:0.3, footer:0.3 }

Worksheet Object

In addition to the base sheet keys, worksheets also add:

• ws['!cols']: array of column properties objects. Column widths are actually stored in files in a normalized manner, measured in terms of the "Maximum Digit Width" (the largest width of the rendered digits 0-9, in pixels). When parsed, the column objects store the pixel width in the wpx field, character width in the wch field, and the maximum digit width in the MDW field.

• ws['!rows']: array of row properties objects as explained later in the docs. Each row object encodes properties including row height and visibility.

• ws['!merges']: array of range objects corresponding to the merged cells in the worksheet. Plaintext utilities are unaware of merge cells. CSV export will write all cells in the merge range if they exist, so be sure that only the first cell (upper-left) in the range is set.

• ws['!protect']: object of write sheet protection properties. The password key specifies the password for formats that support password-protected sheets (XLSX/XLSB/XLS). The writer uses the XOR obfuscation method. The following keys control the sheet protection -- set to false to enable a feature when sheet is locked or set to true to disable a feature:

type AutoFilter = {
  ref:string; // A-1 based range representing the AutoFilter table range
}

if(!wb.Props) wb.Props = {};
wb.Props.Title = "Insert Title Here";

if(!wb.Custprops) wb.Custprops = {};
wb.Custprops["Custom Property"] = "Custom Value";

/* force the Author to be "SheetJS" */
XLSX.write(wb, {Props:{Author:"SheetJS"}});

{
    "!ref": "A1:A3",
    A1: { t:'n', v:1 },
    A2: { t:'n', v:2 },
    A3: { t:'n', v:3, f:'A1+A2' }
}

{
    "!ref": "A1:A3",
    A1: { t:'n', v:3.14159 },
    A2: { t:'n', v:2 },
    A3: { t:'n', f:'BESSELJ(A1,A2)' }
}

worksheet['C1'] = { t:'n', f: "SUM(A1:A3*B1:B3)", F:"C1:C1" };

worksheet['D1'] = { t:'n', F:"D1:D3", f:"A1:A3*B1:B3" };
worksheet['D2'] = { t:'n', F:"D1:D3" };
worksheet['D3'] = { t:'n', F:"D1:D3" };

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 */
    MDW?:number;     // Excel's "Max Digit Width" unit, always integral
};

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
};

var tbl = {};
var wb = {
    SheetNames: ["Sheet1"],
    Sheets: {
        Sheet1: {
            "!ref":"A1:C1",
            A1: { t:"n", v:10000 },                    // <-- General format
            B1: { t:"n", v:10000, z: "0%" },           // <-- Builtin format
            C1: { t:"n", v:10000, z: "\"T\"\ #0.00" }  // <-- Custom format
        }
    }
}

ws['A3'].l = { Target:"http://sheetjs.com", Tooltip:"Find us @ SheetJS.com!" };

if(!ws.A1.c) ws.A1.c = [];
ws.A1.c.push({a:"SheetJS", t:"I'm a little comment, short and stout!"});

> wb.Workbook.Sheets.map(function(x) { return [x.name, x.Hidden] })
[ [ 'Visible', 0 ], [ 'Hidden', 1 ], [ 'VeryHidden', 2 ] ]

> wb.Workbook.Sheets.map(function(x) { return [x.name, !x.Hidden] })
[ [ 'Visible', true ], [ 'Hidden', false ], [ 'VeryHidden', false ] ]

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 |

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

var ws = XLSX.utils.json_to_sheet([
    {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}
]);

<table id="sheetjs">
<tr><td>S</td><td>h</td><td>e</td><td>e</td><td>t</td><td>J</td><td>S</td></tr>
<tr><td>1</td><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>7</td></tr>
<tr><td>2</td><td>3</td><td>4</td><td>5</td><td>6</td><td>7</td><td>8</td></tr>
</table>

var tbl = document.getElementById('sheetjs');
var wb = XLSX.utils.table_to_book(tbl);

> 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' ]

> 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(XLSX.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|

> console.log(XLSX.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(XLSX.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(XLSX.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(XLSX.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' } ]

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