bugGNU Octave - Bugs: bug #50412, [octave forge] (io) request for...

 
 

bug #50412: [octave forge] (io) request for .xlsm & .xlsb support

Submitter:  None
Submitted:  Mon 27 Feb 2017 03:34:01 PM UTC
   
 
Category:  Octave Package Severity:  2 - Minor
Priority:  3 - Low Item Group:  None
Status:  Postponed Assigned to:  None
Originator Name:  Owen Kelly Originator Email:  -email is unavailable-
Open/Closed:  * Open Release:  * other
Operating System:  * Any Fixed Release:  None
Planned Release:  None
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Mon 27 Feb 2017 07:48:59 PM UTC, comment #1: 

Issue 1 has already been fixed a while ago:
https://sourceforge.net/p/octave/io/ci/eb8f203a58186a3637b5b9b02d21113fb214262e/
(the proper fix was a bit more involved than simply setting r_extnd to 0)

FYI: the io package has received several bug fixes since 2.4.5, see
https://sourceforge.net/p/octave/io/ci/1a1577acf2196217184a1e3bdacb64574b07baf3/log/?path=
Once I have time (hopefully somewhere soon) I'll make a new release (2.4.6 or a 2.6.0, depending on more code changes I only have in my local repos).


Issue 2:
I've looked into this several years ago. Result: .xlsm is intentionally not supported.
Reading from .xlsm may be OK, but writing to .xlsm is a different thing. There's simply too much internal bookkeeping involved.  The more so for .xlsb.
FYI to safely support those file types quite a few more changes are required in various places scattered over the code than you noted.

If you can provide a number of reasonably complicated .xlsm and .xlsb files for testing I'm definitely willing to try to implement it (at least reading) but I have (1) little time and (2) other priorities ATM so it may take quite a while.

Note that the COM interface (=Excel itself behind the scenes) can obviously process these file types OOTB.  But chances are that once the spreadsheet I/O moves to core Octave (the intention is still there I believe) the COM interface will be dropped.
I'm unsure about .xlsb and .xlsm support with the only other interfaces that support OOXML (POI = Apache POI, UNO = LibreOffice).  As far as OCT goes I already found that .xlsm support adds more complexity for safely writing to file.
OXS (OpenXLS) does feature OOXML I/O but I found it too buggy and although the code is there I've disabled it.


Title adapted
Setting Priority => low
Release => other (not core Octave)
Severity => Minor
Status => Postponed

Philip Nienhuis <philipnienhuis>
Group Member
Mon 27 Feb 2017 03:34:01 PM UTC, original submission:  

Issue 1:

There is an execution path of packages\io-2.4.5\xlswrite.m that throws an error with variable r_extnd not defined.

Solution 1:
   Add line 129:
     r_extnd = 0;


Issue 2:

The regex to recognize file extension (line 186) does not capture '.xlsm'. Note, in the solution, the order of patterns is important; .xls should be last in the group of .xls? patterns.

Solution 2:

In file packages\io-2.4.5\xlsopen.m
   Change line 186 to
     [sfxpos, ~, ~, ext] = regexpi (filename, '(\.xlsm|\.xlsb|\.xlsx|\.xls|\.gnumeric|\.ods|\.csv)');
   from
     [sfxpos, ~, ~, ext] = regexpi (filename, '(\.xlsx?|\.gnumeric|\.ods|\.csv)');



Issue 3:

Files of type .xlsm are not recognized by getnmranges.m.
After the name is recognized, the xlsm files appear to load successfully, though I have not reviewed closely.

Solution 3:

In file packages\io-2.4.5\private\__OCT_getnmranges__.m
   Change line 29 to
       case {".xlsx", ".xlsm"}
   from
       case ".xlsx"


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Carbon-Copy List
  • -email is unavailable- added by jwe (Updated the item)
  • -email is unavailable- added by None (Submitted the item)

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    Follow 8 latest changes.

    Date Changed by Updated Field Previous Value => Replaced by
    2017-08-12 jwe Summary[OF] request for .xlsm &amp; .xlsb support in io package [octave forge] (io) request for .xlsm & .xlsb support
    2017-02-27 philipnienhuis Severity3 - Normal 2 - Minor
        Priority5 - Normal 3 - Low
        StatusNone Postponed
        Release4.2.1 other
        Summaryfixes loading of .xlsm files in pkg io-2.4.5 [OF] request for .xlsm & .xlsb support in io package
    2017-02-27 rik5 Carbon-CopyRemoved 72865 -
    2017-02-27 rik5 CategoryLibraries Octave Package

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