NOTE: this library / tool is a relic from a time when the SheetJS Spreadsheet
Parsing and Writing libraries were separate entities. They have been unified in
the js-xlsx project, xlsx on NPM.
New projects should be using that library directly.
Simple data wrapper that attempts to wrap SheetJS libraries to provide a uniform way to access data from Excel and other spreadsheet files:
- JS-XLSX:
xlsxon NPM - JS-XLS:
xlsjson NPM - JS-HARB:
harbon NPM
Excel files are parsed based on the content (not by extension). For example, CSV files can be renamed to .XLS and excel will do the right thing.
Supported Formats:
| Format | Read | Write |
|---|---|---|
| Excel Worksheet/Workbook Formats | :-----: | :-----: |
| Excel 2007+ XML Formats (XLSX/XLSM) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Excel 2007+ Binary Format (XLSB BIFF12) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Excel 2003-2004 XML Format (XML "SpreadsheetML") | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Excel 97-2004 (XLS BIFF8) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Excel 5.0/95 (XLS BIFF5) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Excel 4.0 (XLS/XLW BIFF4) | ⭕ | |
| Excel 3.0 (XLS BIFF3) | ⭕ | |
| Excel 2.0/2.1 (XLS BIFF2) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Excel Supported Text Formats | :-----: | :-----: |
| Delimiter-Separated Values (CSV/TXT) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Data Interchange Format (DIF) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Symbolic Link (SYLK/SLK) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Lotus Formatted Text (PRN) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| UTF-16 Unicode Text (TXT) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Other Workbook/Worksheet Formats | :-----: | :-----: |
| OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Flat XML ODF Spreadsheet (FODS) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Uniform Office Format Spreadsheet (标文通 UOS1/UOS2) | ⭕ | |
| dBASE II/III/IV / Visual FoxPro (DBF) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Lotus 1-2-3 (WKS/WK1/WK2/WK3/WK4/123) | ⭕ | |
| Quattro Pro Spreadsheet (WQ1/WQ2/WB1/WB2/WB3/QPW) | ⭕ | |
| Other Common Spreadsheet Output Formats | :-----: | :-----: |
| HTML Tables | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Rich Text Format tables (RTF) | ⭕ | |
| Ethercalc Record Format (ETH) | ⭕ | ⭕ |
| Markdown Tables | ⭕ | |
| XML Data (XML) | ⭕ |
$ npm install -g jvar J = require('j');J.readFile(filename) opens file specified by filename and returns an array
whose first object is the parsing object (XLS or XLSX) and whose second object
is the parsed file.
J.utils has various helpers that expect an array like those from readFile:
| Format | utility function |
|---|---|
| Excel 2007+ XML Formats (XLSX/XLSM) | to_xlsx/to_xlsm |
| Excel 2007+ Binary Format (XLSB BIFF12) | to_xlsb |
| Excel 2.0/2.1 (XLS BIFF2) | to_biff2 |
| Delimiter-Separated Values (CSV/TSV/DSV) | to_csv/to_dsv |
| Data Interchange Format (DIF) | to_dif |
| Symbolic Link (SYLK/SLK) | to_sylk |
| OpenDocument Spreadsheet (ODS) | to_ods |
| Flat XML ODF Spreadsheet (FODS) | to_fods |
| HTML Tables | to_html |
| Markdown Tables | to_md |
| XML Data (XML) | to_xml |
| Ethercalc Record Format (ETH) | to_socialcalc |
| JSON Row Objects | to_json |
| List of Formulae | to_formulae |
The node module ships with a binary j which has a help message:
$ j --help
Usage: j.njs [options] <file> [sheetname]
Options:
-h, --help output usage information
-V, --version output the version number
-f, --file <file> use specified workbook (- for stdin)
-s, --sheet <sheet> print specified sheet (default first sheet)
-N, --sheet-index <idx> use specified sheet index (0-based)
-p, --password <pw> if file is encrypted, try with specified pw
-l, --list-sheets list sheet names and exit
-o, --output <file> output to specified file
-B, --xlsb emit XLSB to <sheetname> or <file>.xlsb
-M, --xlsm emit XLSM to <sheetname> or <file>.xlsm
-X, --xlsx emit XLSX to <sheetname> or <file>.xlsx
-Y, --ods emit ODS to <sheetname> or <file>.ods
-8, --xls emit XLS to <sheetname> or <file>.xls (BIFF8)
-5, --biff5 emit XLS to <sheetname> or <file>.xls (BIFF5)
-2, --biff2 emit XLS to <sheetname> or <file>.xls (BIFF2)
-6, --xlml emit SSML to <sheetname> or <file>.xls (2003 XML)
-T, --fods emit FODS to <sheetname> or <file>.fods (Flat ODS)
-S, --formulae emit list of values and formulae
-j, --json emit formatted JSON (all fields text)
-J, --raw-js emit raw JS object (raw numbers)
-A, --arrays emit rows as JS objects (raw numbers)
-H, --html emit HTML to <sheetname> or <file>.html
-D, --dif emit DIF to <sheetname> or <file>.dif (Lotus DIF)
-U, --dbf emit DBF to <sheetname> or <file>.dbf (MSVFP DBF)
-K, --sylk emit SYLK to <sheetname> or <file>.slk (Excel SYLK)
-P, --prn emit PRN to <sheetname> or <file>.prn (Lotus PRN)
-E, --eth emit ETH to <sheetname> or <file>.eth (Ethercalc)
-t, --txt emit TXT to <sheetname> or <file>.txt (UTF-8 TSV)
-r, --rtf emit RTF to <sheetname> or <file>.txt (Table RTF)
-x, --xml emit XML
-m, --markdown emit markdown table
-F, --field-sep <sep> CSV field separator
-R, --row-sep <sep> CSV row separator
-n, --sheet-rows <num> Number of rows to process (0=all rows)
--sst generate shared string table for XLS* formats
--compress use compression when writing XLSX/M/B and ODS
--read read but do not generate output
--all parse everything; write as much as possible
--dev development mode
-q, --quiet quiet mode
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.
Using git textconv, you can use J to generate more meaningful diffs!
One-time configuration (misc/gitdiff.sh):
#!/bin/bash
# Define a sheetjs diff type that uses j
git config --global diff.sheetjs.textconv "j"
# Configure a user .gitattributes file that maps the xls{,x,m} files
touch ~/.gitattributes
cat <<EOF >>~/.gitattributes
*.xls diff=sheetjs
*.xlsb diff=sheetjs
*.xlsm diff=sheetjs
*.xlsx diff=sheetjs
*.XLS diff=sheetjs
*.XLSB diff=sheetjs
*.XLSM diff=sheetjs
*.XLSX diff=sheetjs
EOF
# Set the .gitattributes to be used for all repos on the system:
git config --global core.attributesfile '~/.gitattributes'
If you just want to compare formulae (for example, in a sheet using NOW):
git config --global diff.sheetjs.textconv "j -S"
NOTE: There are some known issues regarding global modules in Windows. The best
bet is to npm install j in your git directory before diffing.