Microsoft Excel (XLSXR) Reader Parameters

Field Type	Description
boolean	Boolean fields store True/False data. Data read or written from and to such fields must always have a value of either true or false. FME represents Booleans as Yes and No for True and False, respectively, so any logging within FME will reflect this. Round-tripped values will be written as True/False as expected.
char(<width>)	Character fields store fixed-length strings. The width parameter controls the maximum number of characters that can be stored by the field. No padding is required for strings shorter than this width. Notes: Strings encountered that have length greater than width will still be returned; they will not be truncated. The width parameter is only valuable if the features will be passed to another format that requires this information.
datetime	Datetime fields convert doubles or strings in Excel to FME datetime string format and are detected using the formatting value and cell value from the source file. Note that no formatting is preserved from the original value in Excel. YYYYMMDDHHmmSS.mmm (Year, Month, Day, Hour, Minute, Second, Milliseconds)
date	Date fields convert doubles or strings in Excel to FME date string format, and are detected using the formatting value and cell value from the source file. Note that no formatting is preserved from the original value in Excel. YYYYMMD (Year, Month, Day)
time	Time fields convert doubles or strings in Excel to FME time string format, and are detected using the formatting value and cell value from the source file. Note that no formatting is preserved from the original value in Excel. HHmmSS.mmm (Hour, Minute, Second, Milliseconds)
string	String fields store variable length character data up to a length of 32767 characters. Values larger than 32767 are truncated.
number	Number fields store single and double precision floating point values.
x_coordinate y_coordinate z_coordinate	Coordinate fields store double precision floating point values. There is no ability to specify the precision and width of the field. If x and y coordinates are specified on a feature type on read, features will use them to try to create point geometries. The attributes are not consumed by the geometry, so they will still appear on the features produced. If your spreadsheet data contains X/Y values or Latitude/Longitude, FME automatically converts the rows to geometry. FME also recognizes common labels for columns, like latitude and longitude, and sets the source coordinate system to LL-WGS84.

Apply Filter(s)

By default, the Excel Reader ignores all Excel filters and reads every row of data. Select this parameter if you only want to read in the rows that are not being filtered out. This parameter sets the feature-type level default.

Maximum Rows to Scan

If the field structure of the first several rows of a feature type is representative of the remainder of the feature type, this option can be set to prevent FME from unnecessarily reading further rows from a potentially large range when determining its schema.

If left blank, there will be no limit and all rows will be read.

Note: This setting only applies to the schema generation; it does not limit the number of rows read when the translation is run.

Trim Whitespace from Attribute Names

If checked, the reader will trim all whitespace characters from the ends of all attribute names. For example, “ Category ” would become “Category”.

Trim Characters from Attribute Names

This parameter accepts a list of ASCII characters which it will trim from the ends of all attribute names. (This is similar to setting the AttributeTrimmer transformer Trim Type parameter to Both.)

For example, when entering "_ in the parameter field, the attribute ""___Category_"" becomes Category. It's also a useful option for removing quotation marks from column names ("region" becomes region).

Read Blank Cells As

This parameter defines how FME will read back blank cells.

• Null – Blank cells will be read back as null attributes on the output feature.
• Missing – Blank cells will be read back as missing attributes on the output feature.

Expand Merged Cells

This parameter tells the reader what to do when it encounters a merged cell range.

• If selected (which is the default), the value will be placed into every attribute contained within the merged cell.
• If not selected, the value of the range will only be placed in the first attribute of the first attribute containing it.

For example, if there is a merged cell range of A1:B2 (which contains 4 cells) and it has the value testString:

• If you select Expand Merged Cells, you receive two features with attributes A=’testString’ and B=’testString’.
• If you do not select Expand Merged Cells, you receive one feature with attributes A=’testString’ and B=<missing> and one feature with A=<missing> and B=<missing>.

Read Embedded Images As

Sets how any images embedded in the worksheets will be handled. An image’s top left corner determines the cell the image is considered to be placed in. Images may be ignored on read, read as an additional value for that attribute (<attributeName>.raster_data), or as additional geometry features. If images are considered to be part of the row’s data, use the Attributes option. The Geometry option is useful if images on a worksheet are related to the dataset but not tied to any particular row.

• None – No images will be read. This is the default option.
• Attributes – If a row within the selected columns contains an image, the cell’s value will be read as normal, and additional attributes will be added that pertain to the image. Images that fall outside the Cell Range for the feature type will never be read.
  • .raster_data – Blob (binary-encoded string) containing the raw image file contents. Can be converted to a raster geometry via the RasterReplacer transformer.
  • .raster_format – The image format of the blob (PNG, GIF, JPEG, TIFF). Less common formats supported by Excel (WMF, EMF, DIB) may not be supported as attributes and will generate a warning.
  • .raster_height – The image’s displayed height in pixels.
  • .raster_width – The image’s displayed width in pixels.
• Geometry – Images in BMP, PNG, GIF, JPEG, and TIFF formats will be read as Raster features. Less common formats supported by Excel (WMF, EMF, DIB) may not be supported as geometries and will generate a warning. When reading embedded images as Geometry, all images on the sheet will be read as features, even if they fall outside the feature type read area.

It is possible to link images to an Excel worksheet without inserting the image into the workbook. These Linked Images cannot be read directly by FME and will generate a warning when one is encountered. When encountered in Attributes mode, in lieu of the attributes listed above, only .raster_location will be set to the file path where the image can be found. Note that the path is not guaranteed to be valid. In Geometry mode, the xlsx_raster_location format attribute will be set instead of a raster geometry.

Feature Types corresponding to Named Ranges will never produce features for images.

Read Form Controls as Cell Values

The Excel Reader supports reading certain form controls as cell values. When enabled, the reader will check for form controls whose top left anchor is in an attribute cell and if present, will use its value to populate the attribute, overriding any other value that may reside in the cell. Only one form control per cell will be read – this will usually be the first control that was added to the sheet. Multiple form controls per cell are not supported.

Formatting, formulas, and hyperlinks may still be read from a cell with a form control if the appropriate option is selected.

Currently, only checkbox-type controls are supported. The possible values are:

• True (boolean) when the box is checked.
• False (boolean) when the box is empty.
• Mixed (string) when the box is filled with a pattern. This can happen when the form control is bound to a cell with the value #N/A or the formula =NA().

Example

In the input Excel file, cell checkboxes are shown checked, unchecked, and mixed:

After the file is read, the Reader Parameters Preview area shows the cells before and after Read Form Control as Cell Values is checked: