6 ms·

Was there a particular reason that this library was written? The only thing I can glean from the repo is that it seems to be faster than C# alternatives.

blowski 9y ago
I had a project where I had to translate a frequently updated Excel workbook containing lots of complicated formulas into a PHP project. So I parsed each cell and transpiled the Excel stuff into PHP, and the ran the resulting code. The reason was Excel’s lack of an API. The formulas themselves were too complicated for existing solutions, and kept breaking them. I only built what was necessary so it worked out quicker. No idea if that’s the same as the original use case, but it this kind of library looks like it does the same kind of thing on a more general level.
- slededit 9y ago
  Excel has several APIs: VBA, COM, XLLs, and JS based Agaves.
  - masklinn 9y ago
    Is any of them usable without excel e.g. on Linux?
    - pjmlp 9y ago
      There is no need to have Excel installed to use the OpenXML libraries. https://github.com/OfficeDev/Open-Xml-Sdk https://github.com/OfficeDev/Open-Xml-Sdk They also support being used on .NET Core.
      - blowski 9y ago
        The kind of API I was looking for but couldn’t find (in 2014) was “when I change the value of cell A1 to 17, what’s the value of cell C5?” And get the answer within a couple of seconds. There was no supported way to programmatically change the value of a cell and get the calculated result of a different cell, at least not that I could find.
        WalterGR 9y ago
        (in 2014) Is the situation different in 2017?
        igitur 9y ago
        http://github.com/ClosedXML/ClosedXML http://github.com/ClosedXML/ClosedXML is a wrapper around OpenXML and attempts to fill that gap. It has partial support of Excel formula evaluation. Disclaimer: I'm a current ClosedXML contributor.
    - slededit 9y ago
      Its weird to ask for an Excel API that doesn't use Excel. I guess you meant library.
masklinn 9y ago
Somebody needed to read excel files from Rust, possibly not from Windows? That would also be the reason why openpyxl and xlrd exist for Python: http://www.python-excel.org http://www.python-excel.org e.g. importable data using real spreadsheet files is much more reliable than CSV, and easier for clients to generate.
- brunoqc 9y ago
  > e.g. importable data using real spreadsheet files is much more reliable than CSV, and easier for clients to generate. It can also be more a pita since cells can have different formats.
alexnewman 9y ago
Rust doesn’t require a runtime and that’s often helpful

blowski 9y ago

I had a project where I had to translate a frequently updated Excel workbook containing lots of complicated formulas into a PHP project. So I parsed each cell and transpiled the Excel stuff into PHP, and the ran the resulting code. The reason was Excel’s lack of an API. The formulas themselves were too complicated for existing solutions, and kept breaking them. I only built what was necessary so it worked out quicker. No idea if that’s the same as the original use case, but it this kind of library looks like it does the same kind of thing on a more general level.

slededit 9y ago
Excel has several APIs: VBA, COM, XLLs, and JS based Agaves.
- masklinn 9y ago
  Is any of them usable without excel e.g. on Linux?
  - pjmlp 9y ago
    There is no need to have Excel installed to use the OpenXML libraries. https://github.com/OfficeDev/Open-Xml-Sdk https://github.com/OfficeDev/Open-Xml-Sdk They also support being used on .NET Core.
    - blowski 9y ago
      The kind of API I was looking for but couldn’t find (in 2014) was “when I change the value of cell A1 to 17, what’s the value of cell C5?” And get the answer within a couple of seconds. There was no supported way to programmatically change the value of a cell and get the calculated result of a different cell, at least not that I could find.
      - WalterGR 9y ago
        (in 2014) Is the situation different in 2017?
      - igitur 9y ago
        http://github.com/ClosedXML/ClosedXML http://github.com/ClosedXML/ClosedXML is a wrapper around OpenXML and attempts to fill that gap. It has partial support of Excel formula evaluation. Disclaimer: I'm a current ClosedXML contributor.
  - slededit 9y ago
    Its weird to ask for an Excel API that doesn't use Excel. I guess you meant library.

masklinn 9y ago

Somebody needed to read excel files from Rust, possibly not from Windows? That would also be the reason why openpyxl and xlrd exist for Python: http://www.python-excel.org http://www.python-excel.org e.g. importable data using real spreadsheet files is much more reliable than CSV, and easier for clients to generate.

brunoqc 9y ago
> e.g. importable data using real spreadsheet files is much more reliable than CSV, and easier for clients to generate. It can also be more a pita since cells can have different formats.

alexnewman 9y ago

Rust doesn’t require a runtime and that’s often helpful