wb_protect_worksheet: Protect a worksheet from modifications

In openxlsx2: Read, Write and Edit 'xlsx' Files

Protect a worksheet from modifications

Description

Protect or unprotect a worksheet from modifications by the user in the graphical user interface. Replaces an existing protection. Certain features require applying unlocking of initialized cells in the worksheet and across columns and/or rows. While passwords can be unicode characters, spreadsheet software is often unable to process these. Therefore using ascii characters is recommended.

Usage

wb_protect_worksheet(
  wb,
  sheet = current_sheet(),
  protect = TRUE,
  password = NULL,
  properties = NULL
)

Arguments

wb	A workbook object
sheet	A name or index of a worksheet
protect	Whether to protect or unprotect the sheet (default=TRUE)
password	(optional) password required to unprotect the worksheet
properties	A character vector of properties to lock. Can be one or more of the following: "selectLockedCells", "selectUnlockedCells", "formatCells", "formatColumns", "formatRows", "insertColumns", "insertRows", "insertHyperlinks", "deleteColumns", "deleteRows", "sort", "autoFilter", "pivotTables", "objects", "scenarios"

Details

This protection only adds XML strings to the workbook. It will not encrypt the file. For a full file encryption have a look at the msoc package.

If the openssl package is installed, a SHA based password hash will be used. The legacy implementation not using openssl is prune to collisions.

Note

The cryptographic hashing implementation used here has not been independently reviewed for security. It should not be used for production-level security or sensitive data without formal auditing.

See Also

wb_protect

Examples

wb <- wb_workbook()
wb$add_worksheet("S1")
wb$add_data_table(1, x = iris[1:30, ])

wb$protect_worksheet(
  "S1",
  protect = TRUE,
  properties = c("formatCells", "formatColumns", "insertColumns", "deleteColumns")
)

# Formatting cells / columns is allowed , but inserting / deleting columns is protected:
wb$protect_worksheet(
  "S1",
  protect = TRUE,
  properties = c(formatCells = FALSE, formatColumns = FALSE,
                 insertColumns = TRUE, deleteColumns = TRUE)
)

# Remove the protection
wb$protect_worksheet("S1", protect = FALSE)

openxlsx2 documentation built on March 7, 2026, 5:06 p.m.