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Converting .xlsx to .csv?

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  Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 14:48 -0500
    Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Bit Twister <BitTwister@mouse-potato.com> - 2015-04-11 20:04 +0000
    Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? The Natural Philosopher <tnp@invalid.invalid> - 2015-04-11 21:16 +0100
      Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 18:12 -0500
    Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Andreas Kohlbach <apr15.7.ankman@spamgourmet.net> - 2015-04-11 16:27 -0400
      Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 18:12 -0500
        Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2015-04-11 23:13 -0400
          Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 23:26 -0500
            Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Dan Espen <despen@verizon.net> - 2015-04-13 09:11 -0400
              Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-13 10:39 -0500
                Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Jeroen Belleman <jeroen@nospam.please> - 2015-04-14 08:31 +0200
    Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Bobbie Sellers <bliss-sf4ever@dslextreme.com> - 2015-04-11 14:02 -0700
      Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 18:12 -0500
        Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Bill Marcum <bill.marcum57@gmail.com> - 2015-04-11 21:10 -0400
          Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 20:44 -0500
          Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 20:44 -0500
            Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? John Hasler <jhasler@newsguy.com> - 2015-04-12 07:38 -0500
              Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-12 09:27 -0500
    Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Ken Sims <ng12207@kensims.#nospam#.net.invalid> - 2015-04-11 17:29 -0700
      Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 20:27 -0500
    Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> - 2015-04-12 03:24 +0000
      Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-11 23:26 -0500
        Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> - 2015-04-13 00:51 +0000
          Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-12 21:15 -0500
            Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? "John F" <j@j.ii> - 2015-04-13 14:11 -0700
            Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> - 2015-04-14 18:30 +0000
              Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-14 14:51 -0500
    Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? dillinger <dillinger@invalid.not> - 2015-04-12 23:42 +0200
      Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-12 18:57 -0500
        Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? dillinger <dillinger@invalid.not> - 2015-04-13 18:26 +0200
          Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-13 12:09 -0500
            Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Stan Bischof <stan@worldbadminton.com> - 2015-04-17 19:38 +0000
      Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> - 2015-04-12 18:57 -0500
    Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? ray carter <ray@zianet.com> - 2015-04-12 22:49 +0000
      Re: Converting .xlsx to .csv? Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2015-04-12 18:57 -0400

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#14496

On 2015-04-11, Robert Heller wrote:
> If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any documentation on 
> the format of the file that I can use to write such a program?

As much trouble as MS goes to in order to make their file formats
impossible to reverse-engineer, I think your best bet would be to find
a friend with the appropriate version of Excel installed on Windows and 
ask your friend to export them to .csv files for you.

Note that I'm not saying their file formats ARE impossible to
reverse-engineer, just that MS works hard to prevent it.
-- 
                                 Chick Tower

For e-mail:  colm DOT sent DOT towerboy AT xoxy DOT net

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#14500

At Sun, 12 Apr 2015 03:24:30 +0000 (UTC) Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> wrote:

> 
> On 2015-04-11, Robert Heller wrote:
> > If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any documentation on 
> > the format of the file that I can use to write such a program?
> 
> As much trouble as MS goes to in order to make their file formats
> impossible to reverse-engineer, I think your best bet would be to find
> a friend with the appropriate version of Excel installed on Windows and 
> ask your friend to export them to .csv files for you.

This is not a realisting option.

> 
> Note that I'm not saying their file formats ARE impossible to
> reverse-engineer, just that MS works hard to prevent it.

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller@deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
                                          

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#14516

On 2015-04-12, Robert Heller wrote:
> This is not a realisting option.

You seem to think nothing is.  Perhaps your requirements are what is
unrealistic.  You seem to have come up with a corner case few if any 
others have proposed.

Maybe you should attack the problem from the other end.  Why can't your
source of these files produce .csv files for you?  (After writing this, 
I see that you have considered it.)
-- 
                                 Chick Tower

For e-mail:  colm DOT sent DOT towerboy AT xoxy DOT net

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#14517

At Mon, 13 Apr 2015 00:51:22 +0000 (UTC) Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> wrote:

> 
> On 2015-04-12, Robert Heller wrote:
> > This is not a realisting option.
> 
> You seem to think nothing is.  Perhaps your requirements are what is
> unrealistic.  You seem to have come up with a corner case few if any 
> others have proposed.
> 
> Maybe you should attack the problem from the other end.  Why can't your
> source of these files produce .csv files for you?  (After writing this, 
> I see that you have considered it.)

People sitting at their mess-windows Excel screen click file->Save[ As] and
Excel helpfully pops up a file selection dialog, with the default file type of
Xlsx and they click 'Save' and then fire up OE (or Hotmail.com or whatever),
and send it 'mindlessly' along, assuming, *everybody* with a computer is
running MS-Windows or MacOSX and of course has MS-Office installed -- who in
their right mind would NOT have MS-Office installed, well maybe some Linux
idiot with Ubuntu installed, but then Ubuntu installs LibreOffice by default,
so that is covered. There are a *few* of us (or maybe it is one of us) who is
running CentOS 5 on his *old* 32-bit laptop and does not want to fill /usr to
100+% (on his measle 60GB IDE disk) by installing OO on it.

Yes, I can E-Mail them that .xlsx does not work well for me, then they have to
spend the extra time dealing with that, which can be anoying. I was looking
for a simple, easy way around this. And eventually I found it. It turned out
to be too obscure for web search engines to find easily, being overwhelmed
with solutions involving one or anither *Office package. (It turned out that
the solution, xlsx2csv, was actually written for a *different* problem and the
xlsx => csv conversion was actually a side effect. This probably meant that my
search keywords were very low-priority, so the match was too far down the
search results. A bit a negative SEO...

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller@deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
               

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#14528

"Robert Heller" <heller@deepsoft.com> wrote in message 
news:MZSdnWeDfrogu7bInZ2dnUU7-KmdnZ2d@giganews.com...
> At Mon, 13 Apr 2015 00:51:22 +0000 (UTC) Chick Tower 
> <c.tower@deadspam.com> wrote:
>
>>
>> On 2015-04-12, Robert Heller wrote:
>> > This is not a realisting option.
>>
>> You seem to think nothing is.  Perhaps your requirements are what is
>> unrealistic.  You seem to have come up with a corner case few if any
>> others have proposed.
>>
>> Maybe you should attack the problem from the other end.  Why can't your
>> source of these files produce .csv files for you?  (After writing this,
>> I see that you have considered it.)
>
> People sitting at their mess-windows Excel screen click file->Save[ As] 
> and
> Excel helpfully pops up a file selection dialog, with the default file 
> type of
> Xlsx and they click 'Save' and then fire up OE (or Hotmail.com or 
> whatever),
> and send it 'mindlessly' along, assuming, *everybody* with a computer is
> running MS-Windows or MacOSX and of course has MS-Office installed -- who 
> in
> their right mind would NOT have MS-Office installed, well maybe some Linux
> idiot with Ubuntu installed, but then Ubuntu installs LibreOffice by 
> default,
> so that is covered. There are a *few* of us (or maybe it is one of us) who 
> is
> running CentOS 5 on his *old* 32-bit laptop and does not want to fill /usr 
> to
> 100+% (on his measle 60GB IDE disk) by installing OO on it.
>
> Yes, I can E-Mail them that .xlsx does not work well for me, then they 
> have to
> spend the extra time dealing with that, which can be anoying. I was 
> looking
> for a simple, easy way around this. And eventually I found it. It turned 
> out
> to be too obscure for web search engines to find easily, being overwhelmed
> with solutions involving one or anither *Office package. (It turned out 
> that
> the solution, xlsx2csv, was actually written for a *different* problem and 
> the
> xlsx => csv conversion was actually a side effect. This probably meant 
> that my
> search keywords were very low-priority, so the match was too far down the
> search results. A bit a negative SEO...
>
> -- 
> Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
> Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
> http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
> heller@deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
>

Thank you Robert - I have only just picked up on this thread (a few days 
ago) and you have found your answer, and provided it for me as well!  :)

John 

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#14541

On 2015-04-13, Robert Heller wrote:
> There are a *few* of us (or maybe it is one of us) who is
> running CentOS 5 on his *old* 32-bit laptop and does not want to fill /usr to
> 100+% (on his measle 60GB IDE disk) by installing OO on it.

You're not the only one trying to avoid installing bloated office suites.  
I do like to calculate my income taxes in Gnumeric, though.

Are your correspondents importing .csv files into Excel to send to you?
Maybe you can get them to just send you the original .csv files instead.
-- 
                                 Chick Tower

For e-mail:  colm DOT sent DOT towerboy AT xoxy DOT net

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#14542

At Tue, 14 Apr 2015 18:30:25 +0000 (UTC) Chick Tower <c.tower@deadspam.com> wrote:

> 
> On 2015-04-13, Robert Heller wrote:
> > There are a *few* of us (or maybe it is one of us) who is
> > running CentOS 5 on his *old* 32-bit laptop and does not want to fill /usr to
> > 100+% (on his measle 60GB IDE disk) by installing OO on it.
> 
> You're not the only one trying to avoid installing bloated office suites.  
> I do like to calculate my income taxes in Gnumeric, though.
> 
> Are your correspondents importing .csv files into Excel to send to you?
> Maybe you can get them to just send you the original .csv files instead.

I don't know where the data is originally coming from.

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller@deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
                       

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#14511

On 04/11/2015 09:48 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> Does there exist a *CLI* program to convert .xlsx files to .csv files?
>
> There are not any formulas or macros or anything like that in the files in
> question.
>
> *I* don't have OpenOffice or LibreOffice installed on my Linux machine.  *I*
> don't use <mumble>Office programs.  I know I can isntall OpenOffice but it is
> a beast that I am clueless about using, since I don't use it and don't really
> know how to use it and have never in my 45 years of computer programming -- I
> just don't deal with things that way.
>
> If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any documentation on
> the format of the file that I can use to write such a program?
>

xlsx2csv 0.7.1 could be what you're looking for:
https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlsx2csv
Python, obviously, but there are some alternatives listed on that page.

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#14514

At Sun, 12 Apr 2015 23:42:20 +0200 dillinger <dillinger@invalid.not> wrote:

> 
> On 04/11/2015 09:48 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> > Does there exist a *CLI* program to convert .xlsx files to .csv files?
> >
> > There are not any formulas or macros or anything like that in the files in
> > question.
> >
> > *I* don't have OpenOffice or LibreOffice installed on my Linux machine.  *I*
> > don't use <mumble>Office programs.  I know I can isntall OpenOffice but it is
> > a beast that I am clueless about using, since I don't use it and don't really
> > know how to use it and have never in my 45 years of computer programming -- I
> > just don't deal with things that way.
> >
> > If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any documentation on
> > the format of the file that I can use to write such a program?
> >
> 
> xlsx2csv 0.7.1 could be what you're looking for:
> https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlsx2csv
> Python, obviously, but there are some alternatives listed on that page.

Nothing wrong with Python. And I bet that is a nice little program (and there
is probably a *small* RPM somewhere -- yep, looks like it is on pkgs.org. This
program did NOT show up in a web search. 

>                                                   
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller@deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
               

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#14523

On 04/13/2015 01:57 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
> At Sun, 12 Apr 2015 23:42:20 +0200 dillinger <dillinger@invalid.not> wrote:
>
>>
>> On 04/11/2015 09:48 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
>>> Does there exist a *CLI* program to convert .xlsx files to .csv files?
>>>
>>> There are not any formulas or macros or anything like that in the files in
>>> question.
>>>
>>> *I* don't have OpenOffice or LibreOffice installed on my Linux machine.  *I*
>>> don't use <mumble>Office programs.  I know I can isntall OpenOffice but it is
>>> a beast that I am clueless about using, since I don't use it and don't really
>>> know how to use it and have never in my 45 years of computer programming -- I
>>> just don't deal with things that way.
>>>
>>> If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any documentation on
>>> the format of the file that I can use to write such a program?
>>>
>>
>> xlsx2csv 0.7.1 could be what you're looking for:
>> https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlsx2csv
>> Python, obviously, but there are some alternatives listed on that page.
>
> Nothing wrong with Python. And I bet that is a nice little program (and there
> is probably a *small* RPM somewhere -- yep, looks like it is on pkgs.org. This
> program did NOT show up in a web search.
>
>>
>>
>
Well, it did show up in my web search :)
When you're looking for something to convert "this" to "that", there 
usually is some small script or program named "this2that" out there.

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#14525

At Mon, 13 Apr 2015 18:26:40 +0200 dillinger <dillinger@invalid.not> wrote:

> 
> On 04/13/2015 01:57 AM, Robert Heller wrote:
> > At Sun, 12 Apr 2015 23:42:20 +0200 dillinger <dillinger@invalid.not> wrote:
> >
> >>
> >> On 04/11/2015 09:48 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> >>> Does there exist a *CLI* program to convert .xlsx files to .csv files?
> >>>
> >>> There are not any formulas or macros or anything like that in the files in
> >>> question.
> >>>
> >>> *I* don't have OpenOffice or LibreOffice installed on my Linux machine.  *I*
> >>> don't use <mumble>Office programs.  I know I can isntall OpenOffice but it is
> >>> a beast that I am clueless about using, since I don't use it and don't really
> >>> know how to use it and have never in my 45 years of computer programming -- I
> >>> just don't deal with things that way.
> >>>
> >>> If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any documentation on
> >>> the format of the file that I can use to write such a program?
> >>>
> >>
> >> xlsx2csv 0.7.1 could be what you're looking for:
> >> https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlsx2csv
> >> Python, obviously, but there are some alternatives listed on that page.
> >
> > Nothing wrong with Python. And I bet that is a nice little program (and there
> > is probably a *small* RPM somewhere -- yep, looks like it is on pkgs.org. This
> > program did NOT show up in a web search.
> >
> >>
> >>
> >
> Well, it did show up in my web search :)

I didn't see it in mine.  Maybe our search terms were different.  Was it on 
the first page of your results?  I did get some results that *looked* like 
they were something like that on the search page, but clicking on them 
resulted in a 404 error...

> When you're looking for something to convert "this" to "that", there 
> usually is some small script or program named "this2that" out there.
>                                                                             
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller@deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
                       

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#14590

Robert Heller <heller@deepsoft.com> wrote:
> 
> I didn't see it in mine.  Maybe our search terms were different.  Was it on 
> the first page of your results?  I did get some results that *looked* like 
> they were something like that on the search page, but clicking on them 
> resulted in a 404 error...
> 

Hmm.  startpage | xlsx to csv

first result is a free inline conversion second result is xlsx2csv

searching for "convert xlsx to csv" moves xlsx2csv down to third spot.
Also at 5th sport is something called convertxls which looks promising.

Granted that searching is an art and one needs to carefully choose 
search terms, but even so, this one looks pretty straightforward.

Stan

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#14515

At Sun, 12 Apr 2015 23:42:20 +0200 dillinger <dillinger@invalid.not> wrote:

> 
> On 04/11/2015 09:48 PM, Robert Heller wrote:
> > Does there exist a *CLI* program to convert .xlsx files to .csv files?
> >
> > There are not any formulas or macros or anything like that in the files in
> > question.
> >
> > *I* don't have OpenOffice or LibreOffice installed on my Linux machine.  *I*
> > don't use <mumble>Office programs.  I know I can isntall OpenOffice but it is
> > a beast that I am clueless about using, since I don't use it and don't really
> > know how to use it and have never in my 45 years of computer programming -- I
> > just don't deal with things that way.
> >
> > If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any documentation on
> > the format of the file that I can use to write such a program?
> >
> 
> xlsx2csv 0.7.1 could be what you're looking for:
> https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlsx2csv
> Python, obviously, but there are some alternatives listed on that page.

Yes, only 3meg worth of RPMs: about 1% of the size of OO...

Thanks!

>                                                   
> 

-- 
Robert Heller             -- 978-544-6933
Deepwoods Software        -- Custom Software Services
http://www.deepsoft.com/  -- Linux Administration Services
heller@deepsoft.com       -- Webhosting Services
                 

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#14512

On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 14:48:50 -0500, Robert Heller wrote:

> Does there exist a *CLI* program to convert .xlsx files to .csv files?
> 
> There are not any formulas or macros or anything like that in the files
> in question.
> 
> *I* don't have OpenOffice or LibreOffice installed on my Linux machine. 
> *I* don't use <mumble>Office programs.  I know I can isntall OpenOffice
> but it is a beast that I am clueless about using, since I don't use it
> and don't really know how to use it and have never in my 45 years of
> computer programming -- I just don't deal with things that way.
> 
> If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any
> documentation on the format of the file that I can use to write such a
> program?

If you don't want a full office suite, I think your best bet is probably 
going to be 'gnumeric' - a more or less stand alone spreadsheet - it will 
export to CSV.  You might try 'xls2csv' from the 'catdoc' package or 
cobble something together with 'xlhtml'.

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#14513

On Sunday April 12 2015 18:49, in comp.os.linux.misc, "ray carter"
<ray@zianet.com> wrote:

> On Sat, 11 Apr 2015 14:48:50 -0500, Robert Heller wrote:
> 
>> Does there exist a *CLI* program to convert .xlsx files to .csv files?
>> 
>> There are not any formulas or macros or anything like that in the files
>> in question.
>> 
>> *I* don't have OpenOffice or LibreOffice installed on my Linux machine.
>> *I* don't use <mumble>Office programs.  I know I can isntall OpenOffice
>> but it is a beast that I am clueless about using, since I don't use it
>> and don't really know how to use it and have never in my 45 years of
>> computer programming -- I just don't deal with things that way.
>> 
>> If there isn't a simple CLI program to do this, is there any
>> documentation on the format of the file that I can use to write such a
>> program?
> 
> If you don't want a full office suite, I think your best bet is probably
> going to be 'gnumeric'

Gnumeric comes with a commandline utility called ssconvert, which is a
commandline tool (no GUI so no GUI dependencies) that can convert XSLX to
CSV (among others).

Perhaps that tool will satisfy the OP's requirements.

[snip]
-- 
Lew Pitcher
"In Skills, We Trust"
PGP public key available upon request

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