ExcelReaders

ExcelReaders is a package that provides functionality to read Excel files.

Both legacy xls files (Excel 97-2003) and modern xlsx files are supported. The file format is detected from the content of the file, not its extension. Under the hood legacy files are read via LibXLS.jl (a wrapper of the libxls C library) and modern files via XLSX.jl, so the package has no Python or Java dependency.

Installation

Use Pkg.add("ExcelReaders") in Julia to install ExcelReaders and its dependencies.

Basic usage

The most basic usage is this:

using ExcelReaders

data = readxl("Filename.xls", "Sheet1!A1:C4")

This will return an array with all the data in the cell range A1 to C4 on Sheet1 in the Excel file Filename.xls.

If you expect to read multiple ranges from the same Excel file you can get much better performance by opening the Excel file only once:

using ExcelReaders

f = openxl("Filename.xls")

data1 = readxl(f, "Sheet1!A1:C4")
data2 = readxl(f, "Sheet2!B4:F10")

Reading a whole sheet

The readxlsheet function reads complete Excel sheets, without a need to specify precise range information. The most basic usage is

using ExcelReaders

data = readxlsheet("Filename.xls", "Sheet1")

This will read all content on Sheet1 in the file Filename.xls. Eventual blank rows and columns at the top and left are skipped. readxlsheet takes a number of optional keyword arguments:

• skipstartrows accepts either :blanks (default) or a positive integer. With :blank any empty initial rows are skipped. An integer skips as many rows as specified.
• skipstartcols accepts either :blanks (default) or a positive integer. With :blank any empty initial columns are skipped. An integer skips as many columns as specified.
• nrows accepts either :all (default) or a positive integer. With :all, all rows (except skipped ones) are read. An integer specifies the exact number of rows to be read.
• ncols accepts either :all (default) or a postiive integer. With :all, all columns (except skipped ones) are read. An integer specifies the exact number of columns to be read.

readxlsheet also accepts an ExcelFile (as obtained from openxl) as its first argument.

Defined names

For xlsx files, workbook-level defined names can be listed and read:

f = openxl("Filename.xlsx")

readxlnames(f)             # all defined names
readxlrange(f, "MyRange")  # content of the range a name refers to

Defined names are not available for legacy xls files, because the underlying C library does not expose them.

Closing a file

close(f) releases the resources of an ExcelFile obtained from openxl (for xlsx files this is a no-op, for xls files it closes the underlying C library handle; files also close themselves when garbage collected).

Limitations

• Reading only — for writing xlsx files use XLSX.jl or ExcelFiles.jl.
• Cell formulas are not exposed, only their cached results.
• Reading from a byte buffer or IO is not supported, only from files.

Alternatives

XLSX.jl provides excellent, more fully-featured support for modern Excel files (including write support), and is used by this package as its xlsx backend.