Data structure¶

  $book = [
      # Entry 0 is the overall control hash
      { sheets  => 2,
        sheet   => {
          "Sheet 1"  => 1,
          "Sheet 2"  => 2,
          },
        parsers => [ {
            type    => "xls",
            parser  => "Spreadsheet::ParseExcel",
            version => 0.59,
            }],
        error   => undef,
        },
      # Entry 1 is the first sheet
      { parser  => 0,
        label   => "Sheet 1",
        maxrow  => 2,
        maxcol  => 4,
        cell    => [ undef,
          [ undef, 1 ],
          [ undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, "Nugget" ],
          ],
        attr    => [],
        merged  => [],
        A1      => 1,
        B5      => "Nugget",
        },
      # Entry 2 is the second sheet
      { parser  => 0,
        label   => "Sheet 2",
        :
        :

To keep as close contact to spreadsheet users, row and column 1 have index 1 too in the "cell" element of the sheet hash, so cell "A1" is the same as "cell" [1, 1] (column first). To switch between the two, there are two helper functions available: "cell2cr ()" and "cr2cell ()".

The "cell" hash entry contains unformatted data, while the hash entries with the traditional labels contain the formatted values (if applicable).

The control hash (the first entry in the returned array ref), contains some spreadsheet meta-data. The entry "sheet" is there to be able to find the sheets when accessing them by name:

  my %sheet2 = %{$book->[$book->[0]{sheet}{"Sheet 2"}]};

Functions and methods¶

 my $book = Spreadsheet::Read->new (...);

All options accepted by ReadData are accepted by new.

ReadData

 my $book = ReadData ($source [, option => value [, ... ]]);

 my $book = ReadData ("file.csv", sep => ',', quote => '"');

 my $book = ReadData ("file.xls", dtfmt => "yyyy-mm-dd");

 my $book = ReadData ("file.ods");

 my $book = ReadData ("file.sxc");

 my $book = ReadData ("content.xml");

 my $book = ReadData ($content);

 my $book = ReadData ($fh, parser => "xls");

Tries to convert the given file, string, or stream to the data structure described above.

Processing Excel data from a stream or content is supported through a File::Temp <https://metacpan.org/release/File-Temp> temporary file or IO::Scalar <https://metacpan.org/release/IO-Scalar> when available.

Spreadsheet::ReadSXC <https://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-ReadSXC> does preserve sheet order as of version 0.20.

Currently supported options are:

parser

Force the data to be parsed by a specific format. Possible values are "csv", "prl" (or "perl"), "sc" (or "squirelcalc"), "sxc" (or "oo", "ods", "openoffice", "libreoffice") "xls" (or "excel"), and "xlsx" (or "excel2007").

When parsing streams, instead of files, it is highly recommended to pass this option.

Spreadsheet::Read supports several underlying parsers per spreadsheet type. It will try those from most favored to least favored. When you have a good reason to prefer a different parser, you can set that in environment variables. The other options then will not be tested for:

 env SPREADSHEET_READ_CSV=Text::CSV_PP ...
    

cells

Control the generation of named cells (""A1"" etc). Default is true.

rc

Control the generation of the {cell}[c][r] entries. Default is true.

attr

Control the generation of the {attr}[c][r] entries. Default is false. See "Cell Attributes" below.

clip

If set, "ReadData" will remove all trailing rows and columns per sheet that have no visual data. If a sheet has no data at all, the sheet will be skipped entirely when this attribute is true.

This option is only valid if "cells" is true. The default value is true if "cells" is true, and false otherwise.

strip

If set, "ReadData" will remove trailing- and/or leading-whitespace from every field.

  strip  leading  strailing
  -----  -------  ---------
    0      n/a      n/a
    1     strip     n/a
    2      n/a     strip
    3     strip    strip
    

sep

Set separator for CSV. Default is comma ",".

quote

Set quote character for CSV. Default is """.

dtfmt

Set the format for MS-Excel date fields that are set to use the default date format. The default format in Excel is ""m-d-yy"", which is both not year 2000 safe, nor very useful. The default is now ""yyyy-mm-dd"", which is more ISO-like.

Note that date formatting in MS-Excel is not reliable at all, as it will store/replace/change the date field separator in already stored formats if you change your locale settings. So the above mentioned default can be either ""m-d-yy"" OR ""m/d/yy"" depending on what that specific character happened to be at the time the user saved the file.

debug

Enable some diagnostic messages to STDERR.

The value determines how much diagnostics are dumped (using Data::Peek <https://metacpan.org/release/Data-Peek>). A value of 9 and higher will dump the entire structure from the back-end parser.

All other attributes/options will be passed to the underlying parser if that parser supports attributes.

cr2cell

 my $cell = cr2cell (col, row);

 my $cell = $book->cr2cell (col, row);  # OO

"cr2cell ()" converts a "(column, row)" pair (1 based) to the traditional cell notation:

  my $cell = cr2cell ( 4, 14); # $cell now "D14"
  my $cell = cr2cell (28,  4); # $cell now "AB4"

cell2cr

 my ($col, $row) = cell2cr ($cell);

 my ($col, $row) = $book->cell2cr ($cell);  # OO

"cell2cr ()" converts traditional cell notation to a "(column, row)" pair (1 based):

  my ($col, $row) = cell2cr ("D14"); # returns ( 4, 14)
  my ($col, $row) = cell2cr ("AB4"); # returns (28,  4)

row

 my @row = row ($sheet, $row)

 my @row = Spreadsheet::Read::row ($book->[1], 3);

 my @row = $book->row ($sheet, $row); # OO

Get full row of formatted values (like "$sheet->{A3} .. $sheet->{G3}")

Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based.

"row ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

cellrow

 my @row = cellrow ($sheet, $row);

 my @row = Spreadsheet::Read::cellrow ($book->[1], 3);

 my @row = $book->cellrow ($sheet, $row); # OO

Get full row of unformatted values (like "$sheet->{cell}[1][3] .. $sheet->{cell}[7][3]")

Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based.

"cellrow ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified or as method call.

rows

 my @rows = rows ($sheet);

 my @rows = Spreadsheet::Read::rows ($book->[1]);

 my @rows = $book->rows (1); # OO

Convert "{cell}"'s "[column][row]" to a "[row][column]" list.

Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based, where the index in the "{cell}" entry is 1-based.

"rows ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

parses

 parses ($format);

 Spreadsheet::Read::parses ("CSV");

 $book->parses ("CSV"); # OO

"parses ()" returns Spreadsheet::Read's capability to parse the required format. "ReadData" will pick its preferred parser for that format unless overruled. See "parser".

"parses ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

Version

 my $v = Version ()

 my $v = Spreadsheet::Read::Version ()

 my $v = Spreadsheet::Read->VERSION;

 my $v = $book->Version (); # OO

Returns the current version of Spreadsheet::Read.

"Version ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

This function returns exactly the same as "Spreadsheet::Read->VERSION" returns and is only kept for backward compatibility reasons.

sheets

 my $sheets = $book->sheets; # OO
 my @sheets = $book->sheets; # OO

In scalar context return the number of sheets in the book. In list context return the labels of the sheets in the book.

sheet

 my $sheet = $book->sheet (1);     # OO
 my $sheet = $book->sheet ("Foo"); # OO

Return the numbered or named sheet out of the book. Will return "undef" if there is no match. Will not work for sheets named with a number between 1 and the number of sheets in the book.

If defined, the returned sheet will be of class "Spreadsheet::Read::Sheet".

add

 my $book = ReadData ("file.csv");
 Spreadsheet::Read::add ($book, "file.xlsx");

 my $book = Spreadsheet::Read->new ("file.csv");
 $book->add ("file.xlsx"); # OO

Methods on sheets¶

 my $col = $sheet->maxcol;

Return the index of the last in-use column in the sheet.

maxrow

 my $row = $sheet->maxrow;

Return the index of the last in-use row in the sheet.

cell

 my $cell = $sheet->cell ("A3");
 my $cell = $sheet->cell (1, 3);

Return the value for a cell. Using tags will return the formatted value, using column and row will return unformatted value.

cr2cell

 my $cell = $sheet->cr2cell (col, row);

"cr2cell ()" converts a "(column, row)" pair (1 based) to the traditional cell notation:

  my $cell = $sheet->cr2cell ( 4, 14); # $cell now "D14"
  my $cell = $sheet->cr2cell (28,  4); # $cell now "AB4"

cell2cr

 my ($col, $row) = $sheet->cell2cr ($cell);

"cell2cr ()" converts traditional cell notation to a "(column, row)" pair (1 based):

  my ($col, $row) = $sheet->cell2cr ("D14"); # returns ( 4, 14)
  my ($col, $row) = $sheet->cell2cr ("AB4"); # returns (28,  4)

row

 my @row = $sheet->row ($row);

Get full row of formatted values (like "$sheet->{A3} .. $sheet->{G3}")

Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based.

cellrow

 my @row = $sheet->cellrow ($row);

Get full row of unformatted values (like "$sheet->{cell}[1][3] .. $sheet->{cell}[7][3]")

Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based.

rows

 my @rows = $sheet->rows ();

Convert "{cell}"'s "[column][row]" to a "[row][column]" list.

Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based, where the index in the "{cell}" entry is 1-based.

Using CSV¶

CSV can parse streams too, but be sure to pass "sep" and/or "quote" if these do not match the default "," and """.

When an error is found in the CSV, it is automatically reported (to STDERR). The structure will store the error in "$ss->[0]{error}" as anonymous list returned by "$csv->error_diag" <https://metacpan.org/pod/Text::CSV_XS#error_diag>. See Text::CSV_XS <https://metacpan.org/pod/Text-CSV_XS> for documentation.

 my $ss = ReadData ("bad.csv");
 $ss->[0]{error} and say $ss->[0]{error}[1];

Cell Attributes¶

    { label  => "Sheet 1",
      maxrow => 5,
      maxcol => 2,
      cell   => [ undef,
        [ undef, 1 ],
        [ undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, "Nugget" ],
        ],
      attr   => [ undef,
        [ undef, {
          type    => "numeric",
          fgcolor => "#ff0000",
          bgcolor => undef,
          font    => "Arial",
          size    => undef,
          format  => "## ##0.00",
          halign  => "right",
          valign  => "top",
          uline   => 0,
          bold    => 0,
          italic  => 0,
          wrap    => 0,
          merged  => 0,
          hidden  => 0,
          locked  => 0,
          enc     => "utf-8",
          }, ]
        [ undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, {
          type    => "text",
          fgcolor => "#e2e2e2",
          bgcolor => undef,
          font    => "Letter Gothic",
          size    => 15,
          format  => undef,
          halign  => "left",
          valign  => "top",
          uline   => 0,
          bold    => 0,
          italic  => 0,
          wrap    => 0,
          merged  => 0,
          hidden  => 0,
          locked  => 0,
          enc     => "iso8859-1",
          }, ]
      merged => [],
      A1     => 1,
      B5     => "Nugget",
      },

This has now been partially implemented, mainly for Excel, as the other parsers do not (yet) support all of that. YMMV.

If a cell itself is not hidden, but the parser holds the information that either the row or the column (or both) the field is in is hidden, the flag is inherited into the cell attributes.

Merged cells

Note that only Spreadsheet::ReadSXC <http://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-ReadSXC> documents the use of merged cells, and not in a way useful for the spreadsheet consumer.

CSV does not support merged cells (though future implementations of CSV for the web might).

The documentation of merged areas in Spreadsheet::ParseExcel <http://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-ParseExcel> and Spreadsheet::ParseXLSX <http://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-ParseXLSX> can be found in Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Worksheet <http://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-Worksheet> and Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Cell <http://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-ParseExcel-Cell>.

None of basic Spreadsheet::XLSX <http://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-XLSX>, Spreadsheet::ParseExcel <http://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-ParseExcel>, and Spreadsheet::ParseXLSX <http://metacpan.org/release/Spreadsheet-ParseXLSX> manual pages mention merged cells at all.

This module just tries to return the information in a generic way.

Given this spreadsheet as an example

 merged.xlsx:

     A     B     C
  +-----+-----------+
 1|     | foo       |
  +-----+           +
 2| bar |           |
  |     +-----+-----+
 3|     | urg | orc |
  +-----+-----+-----+

the information extracted from that undocumented information is returned in the "merged" entry of the sheet's hash as a list of top-left, bottom-right coordinate pars (col, row, col, row). For given example, that would be:

 $ss->{merged} = [
    [ 1, 2, 1, 3 ], # A2-A3
    [ 2, 1, 3, 2 ], # B1-C2
    ];

When the attributes are also enabled, there is some merge information copied directly from the cell information, but again, that stems from code analysis and not from documentation:

 my $ss = ReadData ("merged.xlsx", attr => 1)->[1];
 foreach my $row (1 .. $ss->{maxrow}) {
     foreach my $col (1 .. $ss->{maxcol}) {
         my $cell = cr2cell ($col, $row);
         printf "%s %-3s %d  ", $cell, $ss->{$cell},
             $ss->{attr}[$col][$row]{merged};
         }
     print "\n";
     }

 A1     0  B1 foo 1  C1     1
 A2 bar 1  B2     1  C2     1
 A3     1  B3 urg 0  C3 orc 0

In this example, there is no way to see if "B2" is merged to "A2" or to "B1" without analyzing all surrounding cells. This could as well mean "A2:A3", "B1:C1", "B2:C2", as "A2:A3", "B1:B2", "C1:C2", as "A2:A3", "B1:C2". Use the "merged" entry described above to find out what fields are merged to what other fields.

"xlscat"¶

 usage: xlscat   [-s <sep>] [-L] [-n] [-A] [-u] [Selection] file.xls
                 [-c | -m]                 [-u] [Selection] file.xls
                  -i                            [-S sheets] file.xls
    Generic options:
       -v[#]       Set verbose level (xlscat/xlsgrep)
       -d[#]       Set debug   level (Spreadsheet::Read)
       -u          Use unformatted values
       --noclip    Do not strip empty sheets and
                   trailing empty rows and columns
       -e <enc>    Set encoding for input and output
       -b <enc>    Set encoding for input
       -a <enc>    Set encoding for output
    Input CSV:
       --in-sep=c  Set input sep_char for CSV
    Input XLS:
       --dtfmt=fmt Specify the default date format to replace 'm-d-yy'
                   the default replacement is 'yyyy-mm-dd'
    Output Text (default):
       -s <sep>    Use separator <sep>. Default '|', \n allowed
       -L          Line up the columns
       -n [skip]   Number lines (prefix with column number)
                   optionally skip <skip> (header) lines
       -A          Show field attributes in ANSI escapes
       -h[#]       Show # header lines
    Output Index only:
       -i          Show sheet names and size only
    Output CSV:
       -c          Output CSV, separator = ','
       -m          Output CSV, separator = ';'
    Output HTML:
       -H          Output HTML
    Selection:
       -S <sheets> Only print sheets <sheets>. 'all' is a valid set
                   Default only prints the first sheet
       -R <rows>   Only print rows    <rows>. Default is 'all'
       -C <cols>   Only print columns <cols>. Default is 'all'
       -F <flds>   Only fields <flds> e.g. -FA3,B16
    Ordering (column numbers in result set *after* selection):
       --sort=spec Sort output (e.g. --sort=3,2r,5n,1rn+2)
                   +#   - first # lines do not sort (header)
                   #    - order on column # lexical ascending
                   #n   - order on column # numeric ascending
                   #r   - order on column # lexical descending
                   #rn  - order on column # numeric descending

"xlsgrep"¶

 usage: xlsgrep  [-s <sep>] [-L] [-n] [-A] [-u] [Selection] pattern file.xls
                 [-c | -m]                 [-u] [Selection] pattern file.xls
                  -i                            [-S sheets] pattern file.xls
    Generic options:
       -v[#]       Set verbose level (xlscat/xlsgrep)
       -d[#]       Set debug   level (Spreadsheet::Read)
       -u          Use unformatted values
       --noclip    Do not strip empty sheets and
                   trailing empty rows and columns
       -e <enc>    Set encoding for input and output
       -b <enc>    Set encoding for input
       -a <enc>    Set encoding for output
    Input CSV:
       --in-sep=c  Set input sep_char for CSV
    Input XLS:
       --dtfmt=fmt Specify the default date format to replace 'm-d-yy'
                   the default replacement is 'yyyy-mm-dd'
    Output Text (default):
       -s <sep>    Use separator <sep>. Default '|', \n allowed
       -L          Line up the columns
       -n [skip]   Number lines (prefix with column number)
                   optionally skip <skip> (header) lines
       -A          Show field attributes in ANSI escapes
       -h[#]       Show # header lines
    Grep options:
       -i          Ignore case
       -w          Match whole words only
    Output CSV:
       -c          Output CSV, separator = ','
       -m          Output CSV, separator = ';'
    Output HTML:
       -H          Output HTML
    Selection:
       -S <sheets> Only print sheets <sheets>. 'all' is a valid set
                   Default only prints the first sheet
       -R <rows>   Only print rows    <rows>. Default is 'all'
       -C <cols>   Only print columns <cols>. Default is 'all'
       -F <flds>   Only fields <flds> e.g. -FA3,B16
    Ordering (column numbers in result set *after* selection):
       --sort=spec Sort output (e.g. --sort=3,2r,5n,1rn+2)
                   +#   - first # lines do not sort (header)
                   #    - order on column # lexical ascending
                   #n   - order on column # numeric ascending
                   #r   - order on column # lexical descending
                   #rn  - order on column # numeric descending

"xls2csv"¶

 usage: xls2csv [ -o file.csv ] file.xls

"ss2tk"¶

 usage: ss2tk [-w <width>] [X11 options] file.xls [<pattern>]
        -w <width> use <width> as default column width (4)

"ssdiff"¶

 usage: examples/ssdiff [--verbose[=1]] file.xls file.xlsx