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 like styling, 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

JS Ecosystem Demos

The demos directory includes sample projects for:

Frameworks and APIs - angularjs - angular 2 / 4 / 5 / 6 and ionic - knockout - meteor - react and react-native - vue 2.x and weex - XMLHttpRequest and fetch - nodejs server - databases and key/value stores - typed arrays and math

Bundlers and Tooling - browserify - fusebox - parcel - requirejs - rollup - systemjs - typescript - webpack 2.x

Platforms and Integrations - electron application - nw.js application - Chrome / Chromium extensions - Adobe ExtendScript - Headless Browsers - canvas-datagrid - Swift JSC and other engines - "serverless" functions - internet explorer

Optional Modules

ECMAScript 5 Compatibility

Since the library uses functions like Array#forEach, older browsers require shims to provide missing functions.

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

<!-- add the shim first -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="shim.min.js"></script>
<!-- after the shim is referenced, add the library -->
<script type="text/javascript" src="xlsx.full.min.js"></script>

The script also includes IE_LoadFile and IE_SaveFile for loading and saving files in Internet Explorer versions 6-9. The xlsx.extendscript.js script bundles the shim in a format suitable for Photoshop and other Adobe products.

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:

More specialized cases, including mobile app file processing, are covered in the included demos

Parsing 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.

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

Streaming Read

When dealing with Readable Streams, the easiest approach is to buffer the stream and process the whole thing at the end. This can be done with a temporary file or by explicitly concatenating the stream:

Working with the Workbook

The full object format is described later in this README.

Parsing and Writing Examples

• http://sheetjs.com/demos/modify.html read + modify + write files

• 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_txt generates UTF16 Formatted Text
• XLSX.utils.sheet_to_html generates HTML
• 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:

The included demos cover mobile apps and other special deployments.

Writing 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 NodeJS.

• XLSX.stream.to_csv is the streaming version of XLSX.utils.sheet_to_csv.
• XLSX.stream.to_html is the streaming version of XLSX.utils.sheet_to_html.

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. In browser-based environments, it will attempt to force a client-side download.

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 and are described in the Utility Functions section:

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.
• table_to_sheet converts a DOM TABLE element to a worksheet.
• sheet_add_aoa adds an array of arrays of JS data to an existing worksheet.
• sheet_add_json adds an array of JS objects to an existing 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_txt generates UTF16 formatted text.
• sheet_to_html generates HTML output.
• sheet_to_formulae generates a list of the formulae (with value fallbacks).

Cell and cell address manipulation:

• format_cell generates the text value for a cell (using number formats).
• encode_row / decode_row converts between 0-indexed rows and 1-indexed rows.
• encode_col / decode_col converts between 0-indexed columns and column names.
• encode_cell / decode_cell converts cell addresses.
• encode_range / decode_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}}. Utility functions perform a row-major order walk traversal of a sheet 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};
    /* if an A1-style address is needed, encode the address */
    var cell_ref = XLSX.utils.encode_cell(cell_address);
  }
}

Cell Object

Cell objects are plain JS objects with keys and values following the convention:

| Key | Description | | --- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------- | | v | raw value (see Data Types section for more info) | | w | formatted text (if applicable) | | t | type: b Boolean, e Error, n Number, d Date, s Text, z Stub | | f | cell formula encoded as an A1-style string (if applicable) | | F | range of enclosing array if formula is array formula (if applicable) | | r | rich text encoding (if applicable) | | h | HTML rendering of the rich text (if applicable) | | c | comments associated with the cell | | z | number format string associated with the cell (if requested) | | l | cell hyperlink object (.Target holds link, .Tooltip is tooltip) | | s | the style/theme of the cell (if applicable) |

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 value property, interpreted based on the t type property. This separation allows for representation of numbers as well as numeric text. There are 6 valid cell types:

| Type | Description | | :--: | :-------------------------------------------------------------------- | | b | Boolean: value interpreted as JS boolean | | e | Error: value is a numeric code and w property stores common name ** | | n | Number: value is a JS number ** | | d | Date: value is a JS Date object or string to be parsed as Date ** | | s | Text: value interpreted as JS string and written as text ** | | z | Stub: blank stub cell that is ignored by data processing utilities ** |

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. The library does not correct for this error.

Type s is the String type. Values are explicitly stored as text. Excel will interpret these cells as "number stored as text". Generated Excel files automatically suppress that class of error, but other formats may elicit errors.

Type z represents blank stub cells. They are generated in cases where cells have no assigned value but hold comments or other metadata. They are ignored by the core library data processing utility functions. By default these cells are not generated; the parser sheetStubs option must be set to true.

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:

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. Plain text formats do not support 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:

• ws['!autofilter']: AutoFilter object following the schema:

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

Chartsheet Object

Chartsheets are represented as standard sheets. They are distinguished with the !type property set to "chart".

The underlying data and !ref refer to the cached data in the chartsheet. The first row of the chartsheet is the underlying header.

Macrosheet Object

Macrosheets are represented as standard sheets. They are distinguished with the !type property set to "macro".

Dialogsheet Object

Dialogsheets are represented as standard sheets. They are distinguished with the !type property set to "dialog".

Workbook Object

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

wb.Sheets[sheetname] returns an object representing the worksheet.

wb.Props is an object storing the standard properties. wb.Custprops stores custom properties. Since the XLS standard properties deviate from the XLSX standard, XLS parsing stores core properties in both places.

wb.Workbook stores workbook-level attributes.

Workbook File Properties

The various file formats use different internal names for file properties. The workbook Props object normalizes the names:

For example, to set the workbook title property:

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

Custom properties are added in the workbook Custprops object:

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

Writers will process the Props key of the options object:

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

Workbook-Level Attributes

wb.Workbook stores workbook-level attributes.

Defined Names

wb.Workbook.Names is an array of defined name objects which have the keys:

Excel allows two sheet-scoped defined names to share the same name. However, a sheet-scoped name cannot collide with a workbook-scope name. Workbook writers may not enforce this constraint.

Workbook Views

wb.Workbook.Views is an array of workbook view objects which have the keys:

| Key | Description | |:----------------|:----------------------------------------------------| | RTL | If true, display right-to-left |

Miscellaneous Workbook Properties

wb.Workbook.WBProps holds other workbook properties:

| Key | Description | |:----------------|:----------------------------------------------------| | CodeName | VBA Project Workbook Code Name | | date1904 | epoch: 0/false for 1900 system, 1/true for 1904 | | filterPrivacy | Warn or strip personally identifying info on save |

Document Features

Even for basic features like date storage, the official Excel formats store the same content in different ways. The parsers are expected to convert from the underlying file format representation to the Common Spreadsheet Format. Writers are expected to convert from CSF back to the underlying file format.

Formulae

The A1-style formula string is stored in the f field. Even though different file formats store the formulae in different ways, the formats are translated. Even though some formats store formulae with a leading equal sign, CSF formulae do not start with =.

Shared formulae are decompressed and each cell has the formula corresponding to its cell. Writers generally do not attempt to generate shared formulae.

Cells with formula entries but no value will be serialized in a way that Excel and other spreadsheet tools will recognize. This library will not automatically compute formula results! For example, to compute BESSELJ in a worksheet:

Array Formulae

Array formulae are stored in the top-left cell of the array block. All cells of an array formula have a F field corresponding to the range. A single-cell formula can be distinguished from a plain formula by the presence of F field.

Utilities and writers are expected to check for the presence of a F field and ignore any possible formula element f in cells other than the starting cell. They are not expected to perform validation of the formulae!

Column Properties

The !cols array in each worksheet, if present, is a collection of ColInfo objects which have the following properties:

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
};

Row Properties

The !rows array in each worksheet, if present, is a collection of RowInfo objects which have the following properties:

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
};

Note: Excel UI displays the base outline level as 1 and the max level as 8. The level field stores the base outline as 0 and the max level as 7.

Number Formats

The cell.w formatted text for each cell is produced from cell.v and cell.z format. If the format is not specified, the Excel General format is used. The format can either be specified as a string or as an index into the format table. Parsers are expected to populate workbook.SSF with the number format table. Writers are expected to serialize the table.

Custom tools should ensure that the local table has each used format string somewhere in the table. Excel convention mandates that the custom formats start at index 164. The following example creates a custom format from scratch:

The rules are slightly different from how Excel displays custom number formats. In particular, literal characters must be wrapped in double quotes or preceded by a backslash. For more info, see the Excel documentation article Create or delete a custom number format or ECMA-376 18.8.31 (Number Formats)

Format 14 (m/d/yy) is localized by Excel: even though the file specifies that number format, it will be drawn differently based on system settings. It makes sense when the producer and consumer of files are in the same locale, but that is not always the case over the Internet. To get around this ambiguity, parse functions accept the dateNF option to override the interpretation of that specific format string.

Hyperlinks

Hyperlinks are stored in the l key of cell objects. The Target field of the hyperlink object is the target of the link, including the URI fragment. Tooltips are stored in the Tooltip field and are displayed when you move your mouse over the text.

For example, the following snippet creates a link from cell A3 to http://sheetjs.com with the tip "Find us @ SheetJS.com!":

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

Note that Excel does not automatically style hyperlinks -- they will generally be displayed as normal text.

Links where the target is a cell or range or defined name in the same workbook ("Internal Links") are marked with a leading hash character:

ws['A2'].l = { Target:"#E2" }; /* link to cell E2 */

Cell Comments

Cell comments are objects stored in the c array of cell objects. The actual contents of the comment are split into blocks based on the comment author. The a field of each comment object is the author of the comment and the t field is the plain text representation.

For example, the following snippet appends a cell comment into cell A1:

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

Note: XLSB enforces a 54 character limit on the Author name. Names longer than 54 characters may cause issues with other formats.

To mark a comment as normally hidden, set the hidden property:

if(!ws.A1.c) ws.A1.c = [];
ws.A1.c.push({a:"SheetJS", t:"This comment is visible"});

if(!ws.A2.c) ws.A2.c = [];
ws.A2.c.hidden = true;
ws.A2.c.push({a:"SheetJS", t:"This comment will be hidden"});

Sheet Visibility

Excel enables hiding sheets in the lower tab bar. The sheet data is stored in the file but the UI does not readily make it available. Standard hidden sheets are revealed in the "Unhide" menu. Excel also has "very hidden" sheets which cannot be revealed in the menu. It is only accessible in the VB Editor!

The visibility setting is stored in the Hidden property of sheet props array.

VBA and Macros

VBA Macros are stored in a special data blob that is exposed in the vbaraw property of the workbook object when the bookVBA option is true. They are supported in XLSM, XLSB, and BIFF8 XLS formats. The supported format writers automatically insert the data blobs if it is present in the workbook and associate with the worksheet names.

Parsing Options

The exported read and readFile functions accept an options argument:

| Option Name | Default | Description | | :---------- | ------: | :--------------------------------------------------- | |type | | Input data encoding (see Input Type below) | |raw | false | If true, plain text parsing will not parse values ** | |codepage | | If specified, use code page when appropriate ** | |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 | |cellText | true | Generated formatted text to the .w field | |cellDates | false | Store dates as type d (default is n) | |dateNF | | If specified, use the string for date code 14 ** | |sheetStubs | false | Create cell objects of type z 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, copy VBA blob to vbaraw field ** | |password | "" | If defined and file is encrypted, use password ** | |WTF | false | If true, throw errors on unexpected file features ** |

• Even if cellNF is false, formatted text will be generated and saved to .w
• In some cases, sheets may be parsed even if bookSheets is false.
• Excel aggressively tries to interpret values from CSV and other plain text. This leads to surprising behavior! The raw option suppresses value parsing.
• bookSheets and bookProps combine to give both sets of information
• Deps will be an empty object if bookDeps is false
• bookFiles behavior depends on file type:
  • keys array (paths in the ZIP) for ZIP-based formats
  • files hash (mapping paths to objects representing the files) for ZIP
  • cfb object for formats using CFB containers
• 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 CFB object. It does not parse the data. XLSM and XLSB store the VBA CFB object in xl/vbaProject.bin. BIFF8 XLS mixes the VBA entries alongside the core Workbook entry, so the library generates a new XLSB-compatible blob from the XLS CFB container.
• codepage is applied to BIFF2 - BIFF5 files without CodePage records and to CSV files without BOM in type:"binary". BIFF8 XLS always defaults to 1200.
• Currently only XOR encryption is supported. Unsupported error will be thrown for files employing other encryption methods.
• WTF is mainly for development. By default, the parser will suppress read errors on single worksheets, allowing you to read from the worksheets that do parse properly. Setting WTF:1 forces those errors to be thrown.

Input Type

Strings can be interpreted in multiple ways. The type parameter for read tells the library how to parse the data argument:

| type | expected input | |------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------| | "base64" | string: Base64 encoding of the file | | "binary" | string: binary string (byte n is data.charCodeAt(n)) | | "string" | string: JS string (characters interpreted as UTF8) | | "buffer" | nodejs Buffer | | "array" | array: array of 8-bit unsigned int (byte n is data[n]) | | "file" | string: path of file that will be read (nodejs only) |

Guessing File Type

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 |