Guide to Reading Excel Files Using Golang

A comprehensive guide on how to read content from Excel files (.xlsx, .xls) using Golang, utilizing the excelize library with step-by-step installation and illustrative examples.

In this article, we will use the Excelize library to read content from an Excel file. Excelize is a powerful library that allows creating, modifying, and reading Excel files in Golang.

// Step 1: Install the excelize library
// Run the following command in the terminal: go get github.com/xuri/excelize/v2

package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"log"

	"github.com/xuri/excelize/v2"
)

func main() {
	// Path to the Excel file
	filePath := "example.xlsx"

	// Open the Excel file
	f, err := excelize.OpenFile(filePath)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}
	defer f.Close()

	// Get the name of the first sheet
	sheetName := f.GetSheetName(0)

	// Get all rows in the sheet
	rows, err := f.GetRows(sheetName)
	if err != nil {
		log.Fatal(err)
	}

	// Iterate through each row and column to read data
	for _, row := range rows {
		for _, colCell := range row {
			fmt.Print(colCell, "\t")
		}
		fmt.Println()
	}
}

Detailed Explanation:

1. Installing the excelize Library: Run the command go get github.com/xuri/excelize/v2 to install the excelize library.

2. Opening the Excel File: Use excelize.OpenFile(filePath) to open the Excel file and handle any errors.

3. Getting the Sheet Name: Use f.GetSheetName(0) to get the name of the first sheet.

4. Iterating Through Rows and Columns: f.GetRows(sheetName) retrieves all rows in the sheet, and a for loop is used to iterate through each row and column to read the data.

System Requirements:

The code is compatible with Golang 1.15 and above, using the latest version of the excelize library.

Tips:

• Ensure you have installed the correct version of the Excelize library.
• Check the path to the Excel file to avoid file not found errors.
• Use an integrated development environment (IDE) like Visual Studio Code to easily manage and run the code.