write_excel(): write a data frame to xlsx

[slfan2013]

Hi guys, I wonder if there is a readxl::write_excel coming up in the future?

I love the readxl::read_excel very much because it is really fast and is independent of Java.

For some reasons, I cannot use xlsx::write.xlsx2, which is also fast but requires Java. But xlsx::write.xlsx is really slow. It would be super nice if there will be a write_excel in readxl. And any suggestion of fast writing excel is absolutely welcomed. Thanks!

[jennybc]

@hadley and I were just discussing this. Perhaps readxl will gain the ability to write xlsx, but with a very specific scope. Data yes, formatting no, for example. But first the existing bugs and feature requests have to be sorted out.

[slfan2013]

That's great to hear!

Do you happen to have an approximate estimation of when this cool function launches?

[stla]

Hello @slfan2013. You can use WriteXLS (requiring perl) if you are in a hurry.

[slfan2013]

Hi @stla , thanks!

[jennybc]

In the here and now, there's also openxlsx for writing. It was used to create the example xlsx and xls that ship with readxl. See the bottom of the readxl README: https://github.com/hadley/readxl#readme.

[slfan2013]

@jennybc Thanks! I am now using openxlsx, which is faster than xlsx, while waiting for write_excel.

[jeroen]

A new package writexl is on CRAN now. Version 0.1 is very simple but it includes a powerful library so we can easily add more complex formatting and objects.

[jennybc]

Terribly exciting, @jeroen! 🎉 Yes I will gladly use writexl to provide this functionality here.

[slfan2013]

Thanks, @jeroen
I love using your tools.

[slfan2013]

Hi @jeroen , if it's possible to have a feature of saving data at different sheets in the same excel?

Sorry, I don't know where I should ask this question so I post it here.

[cderv]

Hi @slfan2013, writexl repo is at this url: https://github.com/ropensci/writexl

You could open issue about feature request there.

[ZedLeb]

Great timing @jeroen I just wanted to make a transition between R, Excel and Power BI that bit smoother and this works great! Many thanks.