spreadsheet

Groovy spreadsheet import/export

This Groovy library enables you to import and export Excel and Libre/Open Office Calc spreadsheets. It is based on (heavily inspired by) the Spreadsheets library for Renjin R.

To use it, add the following to your gradle build script:

implementation 'se.alipsa.groovy:spreadsheet:1.0.0'

or if you use maven:

<dependency>
  <groupId>se.alipsa.groovy</groupId>
  <artifactId>spreadsheet</artifactId>
  <version>1.0.0</version>
</dependency>

Import a spreadsheet

import se.alipsa.groovy.spreadsheet.*
import se.alipsa.groovy.matrix.Matrix

Matrix table = SpreadsheetImporter.importSpreadsheet(file: "Book1.xlsx", endRow: 11, endCol: 4)
println(table.head(10))

The SpreadSheetImporter.importSpreadSheetSheet takes the following parameters:

• file the filePath or the file object pointing to the Excel file
• sheetName the name of the sheet to import, default is 'Sheet1'
• startRow the starting row for the import (as you would see the row number in Excel), defaults to 1
• endRow the last row to import
• startCol the starting column name (A, B etc.) or column number (1, 2 etc.)
• endCol the end column name (K, L etc) or column number (11, 12 etc.)
• firstRowAsColNames whether the first row should be used for the names of each column, if false the column names will be v1, v2 etc. Defaults to true

See the Matrix package for more information on what you can do with a Matrix.

Export a spreadsheet

import static se.alipsa.groovy.matrix.ListConverter.*
import se.alipsa.groovy.matrix.Matrix
import se.alipsa.groovy.spreadsheet.SpreadSheetExporter
import java.time.format.DateTimeFormatter

def dateFormat = DateTimeFormatter.ofPattern("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss")
def table = Matrix.create(
    [
        id: [null,2,3,4,-5],
        name: ['foo', 'bar', 'baz', 'bla', null],
        start: toLocalDates('2021-01-04', null, '2023-03-13', '2024-04-15', '2025-05-20'),
        end: toLocalDateTimes(dateFormat, '2021-02-04 12:01:22', '2022-03-12 13:14:15', '2023-04-13 15:16:17', null, '2025-06-20 17:18:19'),
        measure: [12.45, null, 14.11, 15.23, 10.99],
        active: [true, false, null, true, false]
    ]
    , [int, String, LocalDate, LocalDateTime, BigDecimal, Boolean]
)
def file = File.createTempFile("matrix", ".xlsx")

// Export the Matrix to an excel file
SpreadSheetExporter.exportSpreadSheet(file, table)

Export to multiple sheets

import se.alipsa.groovy.spreadsheet.*

// get data from somewhere
Matrix revenuePerYearMonth = getRevenue() 
Matrix details = getSalesDetails()

SpreadsheetExporter.exportSpreadsheets(
    // The file extension (.xls, .xlsx, .ods) determines the type (Excel or Calc)
  file: new File("/some/path/sales.ods"),
  data: [revenuePerYearMonth, details],
  sheetNames: ['monthly', 'details']
)

Inquire about spreadsheet content

The SpreadsheetReader is an autocloseable class that can help you find various information about the content e.g. where certain rows and columns are located. Here's an example:

import se.alipsa.groovy.spreadsheet.*

File spreadsheet = new File("/some/path/to/excel_or_ods_file")
try (SpreadsheetReader reader = SpreadsheetReader.Factory.create(spreadsheet)) {
  lastRow = reader.findLastRow(1)
  endCol = reader.findLastCol(1)
  // search For the first cell with the value 'Name' in sheet 1 in the A column:
  firstRow = reader.findRowNum(1, 'A', 'Name') 
}

See the tests for more usage examples!

Third party libraries used

Note: only direct dependencies are listed below.

Groovy

The environment this library is for. Note that there is no inclusion of Groovy in the jar leaving you free to use any (modern) version of Groovy you prefer.

• URL: https://groovy-lang.org/
• License: Apache 2.0

SODS

Used to handle ODS file import and export

• URL: https://github.com/miachm/SODS
• License: Unlicense

POI

Used to handle Excel import and export

• URL: https://poi.apache.org/
• License: Apache 2.0

Matrix

Used to define the data format i.e. the result from an import or the data to export

• URL: https://github.com/Alipsa/matrix
• License: MIT

Log4j

Used to handle logging

• URL: https://logging.apache.org/log4j/2.x/
• License: Apache 2.0