.xls to .csv on Mac

Question

How can I convert an xls file to a pipe delimited file?

Answer 1

OpenOffice/NeoOffice lets you select delimiter on CSV saves. Both are free and let you open .xls and .xlsx.

NeoOffice is the Mac port of OpenOffice, it is more Mac-like, but since it's a port of OpenOffice source it tends to trail in features just a bit. I still recommend NeoOffice of the two though.

Answer 2

If you're comfortable with Python first install the xlrd module, which is useful for reading Excel files. You can get by doing:

% easy_install xlrd

in the Terminal.

Then give this rough script a try.

#! /usr/bin/env python

import xlrd
import csv

book = xlrd.open_workbook('an_excel_file.xls')

# Assuming the fist sheet is of interest 
sheet = book.sheet_by_index(0)

# Many options here to control how quotes are handled, etc.
csvWriter = csv.writer(open('a_csv_file.csv', 'w'), delimiter='|') 

for i in range(sheet.nrows):
    csvWriter.writerow(sheet.row_values(i))

Run this script from the directory where the Excel file is located (an_excel_file.xls in the script) by invoking python xls_to_csv.py at the Terminal

There are a number of options for the xlrd objects, as well as the csv module, so check out the following if you need to tweak the settings:

• http://www.python-excel.org/
• Python Excel Tutorial
• CSV Module

Answer 3

If you don't have Excel installed (which will do that automatically) you can use a Java library to do that easily. I would recommend you to take a look at Apache's POI.

Answer 4

Within Excel goto 'File > Save As' then under the 'Format' drop down select 'CSV Windows'. The key is the Windows version, why they have to include that just because it's a mac i'll never know...