Excel XML

["Simon St.Laurent" <simonstl@simonstl.com>]

Excel 2002 included a Save As XML option as well, so the document below
may be familiar territory to some of you.  The XSLT Cookbook includes a
recipe for processing Excel XML, and I know a fair number of businesses
are already at work mining data from spreadsheets and creating new
spreadsheets from data.  I haven't done extensive testing with this
format yet, but it purportedly stores everything in the spreadsheet
except VBA and charts, and some objects end up base64-encoded.

I suspect that the more exciting story about Excel 2003 is its ability
to import and analyze XML data separate from the stylesheet itself.
That prospect makes me (a spreadsheet-hater for nearly a decade) very
excited, since it separates presentation (Excel analysis) from content
(XML data) quite neatly.

For those curious about what Excel XML looks like, however, here's a
sample with only a small set of data.

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?>
<Workbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
 xmlns:o="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office"
 xmlns:x="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel"
 xmlns:ss="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet"
 xmlns:html="http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40";>
 <DocumentProperties xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">
  <Author>Simon St.Laurent</Author>
  <LastAuthor>Simon St.Laurent</LastAuthor>
  <Created>2003-03-19T20:21:31Z</Created>
  <LastSaved>2003-03-19T20:23:08Z</LastSaved>
  <Company>simonstl.com</Company>
  <Version>11.4920</Version>
 </DocumentProperties>
 <OfficeDocumentSettings
xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">
  <DownloadComponents/>
  <LocationOfComponents
HRef="file:///C:\MSOCache\All%20Users\20000409-6000-11D3-8CFE-
0150048383C9\"/>
 </OfficeDocumentSettings>
 <ExcelWorkbook xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
  <WindowHeight>8955</WindowHeight>
  <WindowWidth>11355</WindowWidth>
  <WindowTopX>360</WindowTopX>
  <WindowTopY>120</WindowTopY>
  <ProtectStructure>False</ProtectStructure>
  <ProtectWindows>False</ProtectWindows>
 </ExcelWorkbook>
 <Styles>
  <Style ss:ID="Default" ss:Name="Normal">
   <Alignment ss:Vertical="Bottom"/>
   <Borders/>
   <Font/>
   <Interior/>
   <NumberFormat/>
   <Protection/>
  </Style>
 </Styles>
 <Worksheet ss:Name="Sheet1">
  <Table ss:ExpandedColumnCount="1" ss:ExpandedRowCount="3"
x:FullColumns="1"
   x:FullRows="1">
   <Row>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data></Cell>
   </Row>
   <Row>
    <Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data></Cell>
   </Row>
   <Row>
    <Cell ss:Formula="=SUM(R[-2]C, R[-1]C)"><Data
ss:Type="Number">4</Data></Cell>
   </Row>
  </Table>
  <WorksheetOptions xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
   <Print>
    <ValidPrinterInfo/>
    <HorizontalResolution>600</HorizontalResolution>
    <VerticalResolution>600</VerticalResolution>
   </Print>
   <Selected/>
   <Panes>
    <Pane>
     <Number>3</Number>
     <ActiveRow>1</ActiveRow>
     <ActiveCol>1</ActiveCol>
    </Pane>
   </Panes>
   <ProtectObjects>False</ProtectObjects>
   <ProtectScenarios>False</ProtectScenarios>
  </WorksheetOptions>
 </Worksheet>
 <Worksheet ss:Name="Sheet2">
  <WorksheetOptions xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
   <ProtectObjects>False</ProtectObjects>
   <ProtectScenarios>False</ProtectScenarios>
  </WorksheetOptions>
 </Worksheet>
 <Worksheet ss:Name="Sheet3">
  <WorksheetOptions xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel">
   <ProtectObjects>False</ProtectObjects>
   <ProtectScenarios>False</ProtectScenarios>
  </WorksheetOptions>
 </Worksheet>
</Workbook>



-- 
Simon St.Laurent
Ring around the content, a pocket full of brackets
Errors, errors, all fall down!
http://simonstl.com -- http://monasticxml.org