xl_open: Open an xlsx file or a 'wbWorkbook' object

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

Open an xlsx file or a wbWorkbook object

Description

This function tries to open a Microsoft Excel (xls/xlsx) file or, an wbWorkbook with the proper application, in a portable manner.

On Windows it uses base::shell.exec() (Windows only function) to determine the appropriate program.

On Mac, (c) it uses system default handlers, given the file type.

On Linux, it searches (via which) for available xls/xlsx reader applications (unless options('openxlsx2.excelApp') is set to the app bin path), and if it finds anything, sets options('openxlsx2.excelApp') to the program chosen by the user via a menu (if many are present, otherwise it will set the only available). Currently searched for apps are Libreoffice/Openoffice (soffice bin), Gnumeric (gnumeric), Calligra Sheets (calligrasheets) and ONLYOFFICE (onlyoffice-desktopeditors).

Usage

xl_open(x, interactive = NA)

## S3 method for class 'wbWorkbook'
xl_open(x, interactive = NA)

## Default S3 method:
xl_open(x, interactive = NA)

Arguments

x	A path to the Excel (xls/xlsx) file or wbWorkbook object.
interactive	If FALSE will throw a warning and not open the path. This can be manually set to TRUE, otherwise when NA (default) uses the value returned from base::interactive()

Examples

if (interactive()) {
  xlsx_file <- system.file("extdata", "openxlsx2_example.xlsx", package = "openxlsx2")
  xl_open(xlsx_file)

  # (not yet saved) Workbook example
  wb <- wb_workbook()
  x <- mtcars[1:6, ]
  wb$add_worksheet("Cars")
  wb$add_data("Cars", x, start_col = 2, start_row = 3, row_names = TRUE)
  xl_open(wb)
}

openxlsx2 documentation built on June 8, 2025, 11:24 a.m.