Summary of important user-visible changes for releases of the io package =============================================================================== io-2.6.4 Release Date: 2021-12-30 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - fromJSON.m, toJSON.m: some improvements for Java-based BIST - make saving .ods/.xlsx files work again with OCT interface - fix opening .xlsx files made using Google docs (bug #60830) - allow other file extensions than .xls/.xlsx when saving to a different file - fix writing text strings in .ods files (bug (#60825) - improve file extension processing *** Code improvements - toJSON.m, fromJSON.m: made much more robust (credits to K.M. Patel) *** Deprecated function: - object2json (superseded by toJSON =============================================================================== io-2.6.3 Release Date: 2020-11-02 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - xlsopen.m: don't wipe user selected reqinterface upon first call to xlsopen after loading io package (bug #59273, bug #59277) - Improve handling of POI interface, esp. OOXML support (bug #59273) - Make reading .ods using OCT interface more reliable (bug #59273) *** Code improvements: - Spreadsheet I/O interfaces echoed to screen when invoking test scripts with "verbose flag. - Significant speed improvements when reading .xlsx files with OCT interface, thanks to Dennis Zeilstra (bug #59277) *** New functions - toJSON and fromJSON: convert Octave objects into a JSON string and vice versa, contributed by Ketan M. Patel (patch #9980). Once Octave-7.x is released these functions will be superseded by core jsonencode and jsondecode. Until then, and/or for users who can't or won't upgrade to Octave-7.x (yet), tojSON and fromJSON will provide JSON functionality. Note: these functions are not fully Matlab-compatible; be careful with ND-arrays. =============================================================================== io-2.6.2 Release Date: 2020-10-10 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - Fix Named range read errors for .ods files with OCT interface. - dbfread.m: open files in little-endian mode (fix by Rafael Laboissière). - xlsopen.m: improve filename extension checking (.xlsm, .xlsb and .sxc were not recognized). - xlsclose (private/__COM_spsh_close__.m): add missing output formats for COM interface (esp. .ods; also .wk3 and .wk4). - xlsread.m: implement options argument (it *was* mentioned in the help but didn't work) - Improve character encoding for COM interface (bug #59203); credits to Markus Mützel *** Code improvements: - xlsfinfo.m: implement 'verbose' flag to echo used interface info. - io_testscript.m: minimize delay, improve texinfo. - csv2cell's maximum line length has been increased to 32768 characters (bug #58618). - Remove autotools (bootstrap, configure). Avoids potential problems and makes code easier to maintain. Kudos to Kai Torben Ohlhus (bug 357081). - Reintroduce xmlread and xmlwrite functions. NOTE: xmlread may provoke Octave crashes on some Linux systems (see bug #58004) =============================================================================== io-2.6.1 Release Date: 2020-04-15 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** io-2.6.1 is meant to polish a few prominent bugs introduced unfortunately in the coarse of code overhaul for io-2.6.0. *** Bug fixes: - xlsopen: reinstate default OCT interface (reason that on systems w/o Java or with non-matching Java bit width "no spreadsheet I/O support was found" for .ods and .xlsx). - ods*.m wrapper functions: properly implement output args (bug #58045). - Wrong concatenation of indices when reading .xlsx with OCT interface. Still no fix for the XML functions :-( =============================================================================== io-2.6.0 Release Date: 2020-02-25 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - Fixed some concealed bugs in getxmlattv.m & __OXS_spsh2oct__.m. - dbfwrite.m: made more robust as regards heterogeneous data columns, just skip them rather than abort. Also fixed writing just one data row (bug #57669) - read_namelist.m: fixed a minor typo. - OCT interface: properly return negative values formatted as "(<value>)" (bug #57812). - The XML functions xmlread.m and xmlwrite.m have been (temporarily) removed (see bug #58004). Once that bug is fixed these functions will be reinstated. *** Code improvements: - Most user-visible spreadsheet I/O functions have been adapted such that: * All supported spreadsheet formats / file types can be read and written with the xls*.m functions. So it isn't required anymore to read .xlsx/.xls with xlsread, and .ods with odsread, etc. * The ods*.m functions still exist but now are mere wrappers for the corresponding xls*.m functions. They are (softly) deprecated but will be retained for a while (to at least somewhere in 2022 ?). As they are mere wrappers they have all the functionality of the corresponding xls*.m and previous ods*.m functions. This has been done to cut down on code maintenance; it wasn't really manageable to keep two separate function sets in sync that behind the scenes provided close to 95 % overlapping internal functionality. The choice for keeping xls*.m rather than ods*.m functions was made for Matlab compatibility - that has no ods*.m functions. - The xlsread.m help text now contains an extensive explanation of spreadsheet I/O interfaces. - The message indicating which interfaces were found is now silenced but can be shown by adding an argument "verbose" to xlsread / xlsopen / xlswrite. See the help for xlsread, xlsopen and xlswrite. *** Other changes The previously separate READ-ODS.html and READ-XLS.html docs in the doc/ subdirectory have been replaced by a new combined html background document rewritten from scratch: Spreadsheet-IO-in-Octave.html =============================================================================== io-2.4.13 Release Date: 2019-10-15 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - COM interface: restore writing formulas to spreadsheet - OCT interface: ignore NA and NaN values when writing .ods and .gnumeric (bug #56375) - OCT interface: don't truncate arrays when using single cell-range input with oct2ods and oct2xls functions (bug #56444) - csv2cell: properly process leading tilde in file name (bug #53591) *** Code improvements: - COM interface: better support for creating file formats other than .xlsx - ditto for UNO interface - Remove references to legacy Java package, as io depends on Octave >= 4.0 where core Octave should have built-in Java support anyway - Replace calls to strmatch() with calls to str(n)cmp(i)() - Replace calls to __octave_config_info__() and __have_feature__() by javachk() (bug #47480) *** Various: - The io package now needs Octave >= 4.0.0, due to dependence on javachk =============================================================================== io-2.4.12 Release Date: 2018-10-28 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - dbfwrite.m: avoid crash and vectorize writing data to file (bug #53899) by Matthew Parkan - dbfwrite.m: add unwind_protect block to be able to avoid dangling file handles in case of errors; better checks on data column homogeneity; texinfo (help) header fixes - A little more robust Java check - csv2cell: improper string indexing (bug #54407), fix by Orion Paplowski - " process leading '~' in file names (bug #53591) *** Code improvements: - POI interface: adapt to POI-4.0.0 (new getCelltype enums) - POI: overhaul cell type handling when reading and writing - dbfread.m: improve speed when reading a subset of data =============================================================================== io-2.4.11 Release Date: 2018-04-18 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - OCT interface: fix reading shared formula results (bug #52875) credits to Radekivv - OCT interface: fix a rare case of nested text cell XML with special formatting attributes (bug # 53298) - OCT interface: don't over-allocate memory when reading text cells in xlsx (bug 533910, credits to Peter Giles - OCT interface: return correct date values for .ods file (bug #53401) - dbfwrite.m: don't prepend space before string values - bug #53510: fix detection of Java version for Java > 8 - OCT interface: (part of) bug #53459, i.e. reading .xlsx files with a more complex mix of chartsheets, macrosheets and worksheets, and exploring such files with xlsfinfo. Writing to such files however isn't guaranteed to be bug free. However, other interfaces (POI, UNO) provide a workaround. - COM interface: clearly distinguish between worksheets and e.g., chartsheets when referencing sheets by number. =============================================================================== io-2.4.10 Release Date: 2018-01-09 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - Remove leftover stanza in configure.ac (bug #52830) - col2num: make input argument case-insensitive *** Code improvements: - csv2cell: now reads files with varying number of fields per line. The number of fields in the first line (assumed to contain column titles) is assumed to be the nr. of columns in the file. Thus csv2cell is supposed to correctly read most csv files w/o any additional parameters (only the separator needs to be specified if it isn't a comma) =============================================================================== io-2.4.9 Release Date: 2018-01-03 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - read_namelist.m: character sequences may contain a '/' character (bug #52310, fix by Brice Davier) - chk_spreadsheet_support: adapt to core cset 516437d2194d (don't allow func parameters to be persistent) - csv2cell: fix erroneous column header to column-number conversion *** Code improvements: =============================================================================== io-2.4.8 Release Date: 2017-10-21 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - csv2cell(): * Improve ignoring CR (char (13)) in csv files (bugs #50979 and #50297) - OCT interface: * More robust identification of worksheets (spreadsheets written with POI interface were misinterpreted) * Overhauled reading .xlsx files; catches more types: inlineString, Boolean, ... (with lot of assistance from Markus Muetzel, thx) - read_namelist.m: improve reading when ending char is not fist on line (bug #52242, fix by Brice Davier) *** Code improvements: - Replace utf82unicode with native2unicode v.v. in Octave 4.4+ (thanks to Markus Mützel) - If no filename extension is given, default to .xlsx rather than .xls - xlsread.m and odsread.m now accept a function handle, an output options struct and interface as arguments after the third (range) argument, in any order. See "help xlsread" or "help odsread" for more info. - all spreadsheet I/O functions now accept an empty string as worksheet name, implying the first worksheet. =============================================================================== io-2.4.6, io-2.4.7 Release Date: 2017-03-03 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - OCT interface: * fix erroneous empty cell assignment to cellstr array bug 49579) * correct XML double-quote translation * reading multi-line text cells in .ods files (bug #50200) * properly write multi-line cells in .ods files - xlsread: initialize r_extnd (bug #49656) - xlsfinfo, odsfinfo: error when no named range exists in .ods file (bug #49922) - JOD interface: * avoid NPE when opening empty file * Remove "A" & "B" column headers in new sheets - UNO interface: * avoid NPE when writing to new sheet - csv2cell(): * warn that multi-line text fields (containing newline characters) are not allowed (bug #50224) * ignore CR (char (13)) in csv files (bug #50297) *** Code improvements: - POI interface: * update support to POI 3.16a (add new java .jar) * better distinguish .xls and .xlsx support **** New features: - csv2cell() now accepts a spreadsheet-style range argument. That option allows reading .csv files with heterogeneous number of fields per line =============================================================================== io-2.4.5 Release Date: 2016-11-08 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - OCT interface: various fixes related to XML handling (bug 49510) - Correctly handle sheet names containing spaces and quotes (bug 49558) *** Code improvements: - xlswrite.m: arrays aren't truncated to 1x1 if a range of only one cell is specified. It'll be now interpreted as topleft cell - odswrite has always worked like above; it is now explicitly documented =============================================================================== io-2.4.4 Release Date: 2016-10-23 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - xmlread.m, xmlwrite.m: fix typo (bug 49095; credits to Andreas Weber) - xmlwrite.m: properly close I/O stream (bug 49197; credits to Pantxo Diribarne) - POI, OXS interfaces: close I/O streams in case of errors (bug 49197) - POI: fix fallback to JXL/UNO for BIFF5 files (Excel '95) - (named ranges) pick first sheet in case of multiple matches with named range (bug 49286) - tidyxml.m: also preserve char(127) - xl2oct.m, ods2oct.m, octls.m, oct2ods.m, tidyxml.m: supply an option to convert UTF-8 characters to one-byte characters and back (thanks to Markus Muetzel; bug 49222). - Fix writing to another spreadsheet file upon closing spreadsheet pointer *** New features: - New functions utf82unicode.m and unicode2utf8.m. These convert double- byte UTF-8 strings into single-byte char strings and back, resp. - When reading from / writing to spreadsheet files, text strings can be converted from/to UTF8 encoding by specifying an option flag "convert_utf" in calls to xls2oct.m / ods2oct.m / oct2xls.m / oct2ods.m. This is probably *only* useful for systems where the Octave terminal cannot support UTF-8 display (e.g., Windows 7 and below) =============================================================================== io-2.4.3 Release Date: 2016-09-03 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - COM interface: return proper used range in case of just 1 column of data - JOD interface: temporary fix for reading numeric values (bug #48013) til bug #48591 has been fixed *** Code improvements: - io_xls_testscript.m, io_ods_testscript.m: return results rather than bail out when hitting errors - cell2csv: increase precision when writing double values (credits to Martin Kunz) =============================================================================== io-2.4.2 Release Date: 2016-07-04 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - odsopen.m, xlsopen.m: do not allow writing to non-existent subdirs - xlsread.m: return with error if file open failed, rather than trying to proceed - OCT interface: mention file creation errors verbosely rather than silently - OCT interface, OOXML: improved reading of cached values (but #47815) *** Code improvements: - Swapped post-install.m hack to allow initialization of io package for PKG_ADD/PKG_DEL directives; no more risk of affecting user space - Changed several calls to (now deprecated) octave_config_info into calls to __have_feature__.m - Add support for complex numbers in read_namelist.m and write_namelist.m (credits to Ryusuke Numata) =============================================================================== io-2.4.1 Release Date: 2016-03-09 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - OCT interface: avoid reading/writing double-byte characters. Excel and LibreOffice convert characters < 32 or > 126 to double-byte. Octave cannot handle double-byte (unicode) characters (yet). The provisional solution is to simply strip those characters from text strings before writing them to file, or strip them before handing the just read raw output cell array to Octave. - Convert illegal XML characters ('"><&) to XML escape sequences and back. - Delete temporary files when processing .xlsx files (bug #47378) *** New features: - New function tidyxml.m: simply strips characters < 32 or > 126 from character arrays or cell arrays (including mixed cell arrays). - test_spsh.m now shows a nice summary of test results for each interface. *** Various changes - Replace calls to deprecated sleep() with calls to pause(). - Adapt code to changes in octave_config_info in Octave development version. =============================================================================== io-2.4.0 Release Date: 2015-12-23 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - UNO interface: flag mismatching 64bit/32bit builds of Octave and LO/OOo. - xlsopen.m/odsopen.m: avoid too many empty lines; improve output of interface detection. - OTK interface: more reliable formula reading. - Fix unneeded empty lines while detecting interfaces. *** Improvements - Panxto Dixbarne has supplied xmlread.m and xmlwrite.m to replace the undocumented, unsupported and unusable binary code by Laurent Mazet. xmlread.m and xmlwrite.m depend on the Java Xerces library >= 2.11.0 These functions are now Matlab-compatible. *** Various: - Remove duplicate code (checks on javaclasspath entries). - Do not allow code to remove non-supported .jars from javaclasspath. - Prepare for a 2.4.0 release now that xmlread/-write work properly. =============================================================================== io-2.2.11 Release Date: 2015-10-22 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== Primarily a bug fix release *** Bug fixes: - More robust Named range code processing & code simplifications - odsfinfo.m / gnumeric: fix errors when sheet has no Named ranges - xlsopen.m: don't allow .xlsx to be opened by OXS interface (OpenXLS .xlsx processing is immature while it works fine for plain .xls/BIFF8) - odsfinfo.m: implement fformat and nmranges output arguments - some cosmetic issues and spelling =============================================================================== io-2.2.10 Release Date: 2015-09-24 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** New features: - Support for Named Ranges. If present in a spreadsheet file, a Named Range can be entered instead of a spreadsheet-style range for xlsread, xls2oct, odswrite, etc. odsfinfo.m and xlsfinfo.m can be used to explore Named ranges in spreadsheet files. Due to bugs in JExcelApi, jOpenDocument and ODF Toolkit, Named Ranges do not work for the JXL, JOD and OTK interfaces. Currently LibreOffice invoked through the UNO interface can only use Named Ranges for .xls / .xlsx files, not .ods files *** Bug fixes: - Allow UNO to work with 64-bit LibreOffice - Adapt UNO jar search to new Java class lib locations in LibreOffice 5+ - Improve PKG_ADD Libre-/OpenOffice search - Two OCT .xlsx write bugs (#45915, #45916). The former is a workaround for a (possible) LibreOffice incompatibility - PKG_ADD: avoid uninstalled previous LO/OOo installations when searching for LO/OOo on Windows - Allow .ods to be read with xls2oct.m - xls2oct.m: catch unsupported file formats for OCT interface *** Various: Improve formula support and reading/writing logicals (BOOLEANS) with JOD interface (jOpenDocument versions 1.3 and 1.4beta) =============================================================================== io-2.2.9 Release Date: 2015-07-10 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== This is a bug fix release. *** Bug fixes: - Fix typo in duplicate sheet names check code (bug #45498) - For the OCT interface, increase numeric write precision to 15 digits (used to be just 6) and ensure that very large and small numbers can be written (bug #45498) - Fix wrong indexing when writing a new gnumeric file with wsh pointer > 1 - xlsopen.m (xlswrite): fix type preventing writing to ods *** Reminder: (hmm a bit moot as of early 2018) This will be (one of) the last io package release(s) before the spreadsheet I/O is moved into core Octave, so this version will only install in Octave < 4.2.x (override using the -nodeps option with pkg.m) =============================================================================== io-2.2.8 Release Date: 2015-06-21 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - xlsread: properly fall back to dlmread when reading .csv files (don't bother with COM (Excel) or UNO (LibreOffice) interfaces) - private/__COM_spsh_open__.m: use entire given pathname to convert to full path, not just filename proper (bug #44642) - Same for private/__UNO_spsh_open__.m - xlsread.m/xls2oct.m using OCT interface: fix wrong worksheet reference (bug #45303) *** This will be (one of) the last io package release(s) before the spreadsheet I/O is moved into core Octave, so this version will only install in Octave < 4.2.x (override using the -nodeps option with pkg.m) =============================================================================== io-2.2.7 Release Date: 2015-03-07 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - dbfread: catch really empty (= spaces rather than zeros) date entries. - xlsopen.m: Clarify error message about missing I/O with file extension. - xlswrite.m: clarify supported file types/interfaces in texinfo header. - private/getxlsinterfaces.m: make COM interface detection more robust. - csv2cell, cell2csv: fix SEP/PROT argument processing for 64-bit indexing Octave - num2col.cc: fix uninitialized variable bug that crashed Octave-3.9.1+ (wasn't exposed in earlier versions) *** Various: - NEWS file scrutinized (formatting, typos) by Armin Mueller (thanks!) - Replaced all occurrences of deprecated core function strmatch() with find (strcmp ()) or strfind() - Silently create new spreadsheet files (there used to be a "Creating file ..." message) - Checked all Java-based interface support SW for newer versions. Results are mentioned in the doc/...html files. =============================================================================== io-2.2.6 Release Date: 2015-01-03 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** New features: - dbfwrite.m: can write cell arrays to a .dbf file (provisionally v.III+) For the time being dbfwrite (and dbfread) are considered experimental. *** Bug fixes: - xlswrite: provide sheet name if empty string was supplied for sheet name - dbfread: fix wrong indexing of logical values in output array. Properly implement selecting data columns with cellstr headers. Better dbf file version checks and memo field checks. =============================================================================== io-2.2.5 Release Date: 2014-11-22 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** New features: - On Windows, try to avoid using 32-bit UNO interface for 64-bit Octave. - Added a first dbfread.m, to read dbase files. Needed a.o., for reading shapefiles etc. dbfread.m is considered experimental for the time being. *** Bug fixes: - Enable writing formulas to OOXML (.xlsx) in OCT interface(bug #43321a). - Fix creating new .ods file in OCT(bug #43321b). - xlswrite: supply default data cellrange if no or empty cellrange argument is supplied. - OCT interface: make sure requested worksheet names are matched exactly (bug #43353) - OCT interface: make sure writing to relative paths works. Creating the intermediate subdir tree won't work (a zip / gzip limitation) - Fix reading from sheets with some special names (bug #43331) - Fix worksheet bookkeeping when adding new sheets (bug #43354) - More robust code to read SharedStrings.xml (bug #43399) - Oct2xls (OCT) fails when sheet names are being used (bug #43400) - Invoke SaveCopyAs rather than SaveAs for new Excel files in COM interface *** Other changes - First throw at restructuring to eliminate duplicate code: . chk_spreadsheet_support.m: singled out checks for java class libs per interface - Checked odfdom-incubating 6.1 (odfdom-0.8.10): doesn't work properly - Added checks for unsupported jar versions in chk_spreadsheet_support. This function won't load unsupported .jar versions anymore and will even remove them from the javaclasspath if it finds them. The only way that unsupported .jar versions (spreadsheet Java class libs) can get in the javaclasspath is if users manually add them. =============================================================================== io-2.2.4 Release Date: 2014-09-11 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** New features: - Add 'headerlines' parameter to csv2cell, to allow skipping a first number of lines before reading actual data. See "help csv2cell". *** Bug fixes: - Replace __num2char__ / __char2num__ (.mex files) by .oct versions num2col & col2num as 64-bitOctave cannot compile mex files with int64_t. - Add some delays (0.25 s) in OCT and UNO file open/close functions to give zip and unpack some time to finish I/O operations (lazy write) on fast systems. =============================================================================== io-2.2.3 Release Date: 2014-08-14 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Bug fixes: - Replace canonicalize_file_name calls by make_absolute_filename to avoid ActiveX/COM errors (due to changed canonicalize_file_name in 3.9.0+) - More robust strrep code in OCT/xlsx write code (modifying access time) - Fix handling empty cell range argument when writing .ods with OCT interface (bug #43783) - Better string detection when reading .xlsx with OCT interface - Properly return a value of 0 after xlswrite/odswrite write errors =============================================================================== io-2.2.2 Release Date: 2014-05-12 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** New features: - Write support for gnumeric An updated overview of which interface can be used for what types of files (extensions): Interface File extension COM POI POI/OOXML JXL OXS UNO OTK JOD OCT -------------------------------------------------------------- .xls (Excel95) R R R .xls (Excel97-2003) + + + + + + .xlsx (Excel2007+) ~ + (+) R + .xlsb, .xlsm ~ ? R R? .wk1 + R .wks + R .dbf + + .ods ~ + + + + .sxc + + .fods + .uos + .dif + .csv + R .gnumeric + -------------------------------------------------------------- (~ = dependent on Excel/LO/OOo version; + = read/write; R = only reading) (+) unfortunately OOXML support in the OpenXLS Java library itself is too buggy, so OOXML support for OXS has been disabled (but it is implemented) *** Docs (html) & texinfo help texts updated *** Bug fixes: - UNO open/close: catch changed behavior of canonicalize_file_name in Octave-3.9.0+ - odsfinfo.m, xlsfinfo.m: also check for leading period in file extension switch statement - Replace java_get (deprecated in Octave > 4.1.0) by __java_get__ - Catch rare Java exception in OTK interface under Octave-4.1.0+ =============================================================================== io-2.2.1 Release Date: 2014-04-26 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== Bug fix release: *** Bug fixes: - First check built-in Java support before further testing Java-based interfaces (bug #42192) - Invoke __char2num__/__num2char__ rather than __OCT_cc__ for spreadsheet cell address translation in OCT interface funcs as well - Fix wrong file handle refs. when updating app.xml in OOXML files =============================================================================== io-2.2.0 Release Date: 2014-04-13 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** New features: - Experimental write support w/o Java or ActiveX, just native Octave, for ODS 1.2 (LibreOffice native format) and OOXML (Excel 2007+ .xlsx) - (write support for gnumeric pending) An updated overview of which interface can be used for what types of files (extensions): (~ = dependent on Excel/LO/OOo version; + = read/write; R = only reading) Interface File extension COM POI POI/OOXML JXL OXS UNO OTK JOD OCT -------------------------------------------------------------- .xls (Excel95) R R R .xls (Excel97-2003) + + + + + + .xlsx ~ + (+) R + .xlsb, .xlsm ~ ? R .wk1 + R .wks + R .dbf + + .ods ~ + + + + .sxc + + .fods + .uos + .dif + .csv + R .gnumeric R -------------------------------------------------------------- *** Docs (html) & texinfo help texts updated *** Bug fixes: - (gnumeric reading): Properly handle ValueFormat tags Fix older formats w/o Value* tags - Restored UNO interface option in ods2oct.m - (xlswrite) when truncating an array (sheet capacity, too small a range), convey truncated range rather than topleft cell - PKG_ADD: Fix case-sensitivity when searching for Libre/OpenOffice loc. Do not automatically load Java class libs on *nix - OCT: delete tmp dirs after closing spreadsheet files - POI: return complete cell range for a.o., xlsfinfo =============================================================================== io-2.1.x Release Date: TBA Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== (unstable version) For changes see 2.2.0 (above) =============================================================================== io-2.0.2 Release Date: 2014-01-09 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== Another bug fix release *** Bug fixes: - PKG_ADD, PKG_DEL: move into script dir to be sure they can be invoked while loading / unloading io package *** New features: - chk_spreadsheet_support: Remembers which javaclasspath entries it loaded, can remove them too - PKG_DEL: Removes all javaclasspath entries added by chk_spreadsheet-support when unloading the io package - PKG_ADD: Searches for OpenOffice.org / LibreOffice in some conventional places to allow silent automatic loading of Java class libs & directories required for OOo / LO =============================================================================== io-2.0.1 Release Date: 2014-01-01 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== Bug fix release *** Bug fixes: - Fixed rfsearch error (empty subdirs) when loading package *** PKG_ADD: Also search user (%USERPROFILE%\Java or ~/Java) for Java spreadsheet support .jar files; also add conventional Linux place in search (usually /usr/share/java) =============================================================================== io-2.0.0 Release Date: 2014-01-01 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Some code simplifications & style fixes An updated overview of which interface can be used for what types of files (extension): (~ = dependent on Excel/LO/OOo version; + = read/write; R = only reading) Interface File extension COM POI POI/OOXML JXL OXS UNO OTK JOD OCT -------------------------------------------------------------- .xls (Excel95) R R R .xls (Excel97-2003) + + + + + + .xlsx ~ + (+) R R .xlsb, .xlsm ~ ? R .wk1 + R .wks + R .dbf + + .ods ~ + + + R .sxc + + .fods + .uos + .dif + .csv + R .gnumeric R -------------------------------------------------------------- For unsupported file types, UNO will write .ods whatever the actual file extension. *** Bug fixes: - Fixed texinfo headers for the test scripts - The UNO interface no longer writes ODS for all file extensions. An updated list is shown above. *** Known issues: - OOXML write/read support in OpenXLS (OXS) is a bit wonky. Doesn't pass Octave OF-io's test script. Upstream has been informed of one example bug. - OpenXLS' OOXML depends on another .jar file (gwt-servlet-deps.jar). Rip it from this archive (108+ MB download): gwt-2.5.1.zip, available at: http://www.gwtproject.org/download.html ("Download GWT SDK") - LibreOffice/OpenOffice.org (UNO interface) doesn't write .csv - OTK interface (.ods) sometimes writes ridiculously wide columns. =============================================================================== io-1.3.6 Release Date: 2013-TBA Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** OXS (OpenXLS) now has read/write support. AFAICS it is the fastest Java- based interface. Provisionally .xls (BIFF8, Excel'97-2003) works fairly reliably. OOXML works too but is unstable (see below, "Known issues"). *** Some code simplifications & style fixes *** xlsread may fall back to csvread for .csv files when no Excel (COM) or LibreOffice/OOo (UNO) interface is supported (bug #40993) An updated overview of which interface can be used for what types of files (extension): (~ = dependent on Excel version; + = read/write; R = only reading) Interface File extension COM POI POI/OOXML JXL OXS UNO OTK JOD OCT -------------------------------------------------------------- .xls (Excel95) R R R .xls (Excel97-2003) + + + + + + .xlxx/xlsm + + (+) + R .wk1 + + .wks + + .dbf + + .ods ~ + + + R .sxc + + .fods + .uos + .dif + .csv + + .gnumeric R -------------------------------------------------------------- *** Bug fixes: - post_install.m: seems unneeded, provisionally commented out all commands - PKG_ADD: dropped all references to Java package, now just checks octave_config_info("features").JAVA *** Known issues: - OOXML write/read support in OpenXLS (OXS) is a bit wonky. Doesn't pass Octave OF-io's test script. Upstream has been informed of one example bug. - OpenXLS' OOXML depends on another .jar file (gwt-servlet-deps.jar). Rip it from this archive (108+ MB download): gwt-2.5.1.zip, available at: http://www.gwtproject.org/download.html ("Download GWT SDK") =============================================================================== io-1.3.5 Release Date: 2013-TBA Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Merged in changes from io-1.2.5 (OCT interface) *** New spreadsheet test routine; improved existing routines to write with one and read with some other interface (helped to uncover many concealed bugs) *** (pending) Cleaning up chk_spreadsheet_support.m *** Bug fixes: - OCT: Replace fgetl calls by fread Improved regexp's - JOD: Wipe "A" and "B" in A1/B1 in new empty spreadsheets (a very old bug) - POI: File extension checks improved =============================================================================== io-1.3.4 Release Date: None (internal) =============================================================================== *** chk_spreadsheet_support restyled from Matlab into Octave style " , introduced recursive subdir search for Java class libs (nice for Fedora) Added rfsearch.m, function to find files in subdirs =============================================================================== io-1.3.3 Release Date: 2013-08-15 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== Intermediate unofficial development version for Octave 3.7.x. Only released on patch tracker Changes: see section for version 1.2.3 =============================================================================== io-1.3.2 Release Date: 2013-06-18 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== Intermediate unofficial development version for Octave 3.7.x. Only released on patch tracker ** Bug fixes --- chk_spredsheet_support: better Java detection (bug #38725) --- xlsopen.m: .xlsx files are properly recognized --- Re-enabled OXS (only reading) and UNO ** Created test_spsh.m test script --- This will find all supported spreadsheet interfaces and tests them one by one =============================================================================== io-1.3.0, io-1.3.1 Release Date: -internal- Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== Version 1.3.0 - 1.3.1 are intermediate development versions for Octave > 3.7.1 with built-in Java support. They are largely untested; the built-in test scripts work for all tested interfaces except UNO and OXS (which consequently are disabled). =============================================================================== io-1.2.5 Release Date: 2013-11-14 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** - Added string/formula read support to xlsx/OCT. There's now full read support for .xlsx (OOXML) files w/o requiring Java or COM - Added requested range for .xlsx/OCT reading *** Bug fixes: - Better filetype / file extension detection (bug #40490) - Added unpack.m from dev core Octave as private/__unpack.m to avoid unzip errors for .xlsx and .gnumeric - Removed harmless but annoying error messages from Java detection - Fix tablerow repeat counter bugs (affected reading ODS w. OCT interface) =============================================================================== io-1.2.4 Release Date: 2013-11-05 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== *** Added !experimental! OCT (native Octave) interface for reading .ods, gnumeric, and xlsx. OCT doesn't need Java or COM/ActiveX; it works without any support software. That independence does come at a price however: - reading .ods is fully flexible like the other interfaces but a bit slow - reading .xlsx is FAST but it only gives numeric data (no strings yet) - reading gnumeric only reads "hard" data, no formula results. I'm afraid this isn't gonna change (it's a gnumeric developer issue) Markus Bergholz supplied the code for very fast reading of OOXML (at present only numeric data) - Thanks very much Markus! An overview of what interface can be used for which types of files (extension) (~ = dependent on Excel version; + = read/write; R = only reading) Interface File extension COM POI POI/OOXML JXL OXS UNO OTK JOD OCT -------------------------------------------------------------- .xls (Excel95) R R R .xls (Excel97-2003) + + + + R + .xlxx/xlsm + + + R .wk1 + + .wks + + .dbf + + .ods ~ + + + R .sxc + + .fods + .uos + .dif + .csv + + .gnumeric R -------------------------------------------------------------- *** getxmlattv.m, getxmlnode.m: new functions (for support of OCT interface) *** xlsopen.m: suffixes for Excel filenames (.xls, .xlsx) need not be specified. (But the files on disk do need these suffixes!) *** odsread.m, xlsread.m: No output arg required (output is sent to terminal if not output args specified) '' '' Check if filename is a text string *** odsopen: Relax requirement of lower case filename extension ** Bug fixes: --- xlsopen.m: Undue fallback to JXL for OOXML files hopefully fixed now '' Misinformation in error message about unsupported OXS & UNO fixed --- private/__POI_getusedrange__.m: Check return value of XSSF getFirstCellNum method =============================================================================== io-1.2.3 Release Date: 2013-08-15 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== ** Bug fixes: --- private/chk_jar_entries.m: trim multiple entries to avoid padded spaces *** private/getxlsinterfaces.m: add multiple jar entries for POI cf. Fedora naming (actually a Fedora packaging complication) *** chk_spreadsheet_support.m: same as getxlsinterfaces.m *** Added logical types to object2json (by Keith Sheppard, bug #39429) *** Tested odfdom-0.6-incubator (odfdom-0.8.9): too buggy to support :-( Updated doc/READ-ODS.html and added checks to chk_spreadsheet_support.m and private/getodsinterfaces.m =============================================================================== io-1.2.2 Release Date: 2013-05-21 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== ** Bug fixes: --- xlsopen.m: avoid fallback to JXL for OOXML files in some cases --- xlsopen.m, odsopen.m (actually silently fixed in 1.2.1): always re-read javaclasspath when a Java spreadsheet interface is requested explicitly (because between calls to xls-/odsopen new classes could be added to the javaclasspath, this wasn't picked up properly) --- csv2cell(): Fix hanging when it encountered EOF w/o preceding EOL (#143 in former OctDev bug tracker) csv2cell(): Fix inconsistent behavior when first field on a line is a string protected by "" (see http://octave.1599824.n4.nabble.com/csv2cell-inconsistent-tc4635817.html) --- __UNO_oct2spsh__.m: wrong assignment in code finding existing sheetnames --- Fix checks on xls or xls? suffix (due to Vermylen) --- Temporarily commented out tests in private subdir (bug #38755) ** csv2cell(): Tests added for above bugs and proper SEP and PROT args ** cell2csv(): Tests added incl. for proper SEP and PROT args ** Added read_namelist.m and write_namelist.m, kindly contributed by Darien Pardinas Diaz and Terry Duel =============================================================================== io-1.2.1 Release Date: 2013-03-01 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== ** Bug fixes: --- post_install.m: fixed wrong format specifier in error message --- chk_spreadsheet_support: Java call to return JVM memory size returns varying type dependent on Java version. Made this part of code more robust. Also prepared for Octave-3.8 built-in Java support --- xlsopen.m, odsopen.m: improved matching file type to specific interfaces (e.g., .sxc can only be read by JOD and UNO; .xlsx only by COM, POI-OOXML and UNO) ** moved common Java detection code from getods/getxlsinterfaces to separate function ** post_install: if PKG_ADD couldn't be removed from .oct file dir, inform user to add spreadsheet Java class libs manually to the javaclasspath ** Replaced all calls to to-be-deprecated java_new & java_invoke calls by javaObject and javaMethod =============================================================================== io-1.2.0 Release Date: 2012-12-27 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== This will be the last major version that is "depending" on the separate Java package for most of the spreadsheet I/O. In a next major version this will be based on Octave's built-in Java support. Some of the spreadsheet support files in io-1.2.0 are expected not to work anymore in Octave-3.8+ ** Bug fixes: --- xls2oct(POI)/__POI_spsh2oct__: now correctly evaluates formulas (as far as POI can handle cell formulas) --- Fixed sheet selection code for UNO and COM interfaces ** Moved all interface-specific subfunctions and code into ./private subdir. This allowed for elimination of a lot of duplicate code. ** Moved functions parse_sp_range.m, spsh_chkrange.m & spsh_prstype.m into ./private subdir ** Support for POI 3.9 added =============================================================================== io-1.0.20 Release Date: 2012-09-07 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== ** Bug fixes: --- xlsopen, xlsclose, odsopen, odsclose: replaced canonicalize_file_name call with make_absolute_filename for non-windows systems (canonicalize_file_name doesn't work with non-existent (new) files on *nix) (bug #36677); Web addresses (URLs) only need two rather than three slashes; --- xlsopen: matching .jar names to javaclasspath entries worked the wrong way --- io_xls_testscript / io_ods_testscript: added small delay for UNO calls to avoid lock-ups with recent LibreOffice (3.6.x) ** The annoying flashing LibreOffice splash screens have been fixed upstream; with LibreOffice 3.6.1 I didn't see them anymore ** Extended file rename section in odsclose similar to that in xlsclose =============================================================================== io-1.0.19 Release Date: 2012-06-08 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== ** Bug fixes: --- getusedrange subfunc getusedrange_jod: str2num applied to indices rather than the substring. Must have been there for > 2 years, only surfaced with jopendocument v 1.3b1 --- oct2xls, oct2ods: cast all numeric types in input array to double as spreadsheets have only double, boolean or character string type. This bug has been there from the very beginning of the spreadsheet functions >8-O --- Support for reading back formulas from .xls spreadsheets using ActiveX/COM ** Compatible with jOpenDocument version 1.3b1 getUsedRange() method added (MUCH faster than the old hack) ** Compatible with odfdom-java-0.8.8-incubator.jar (ODF Toolkit 0.5-incubating) ** Compatible with Apache POI 3.8 final =============================================================================== io-1.0.18 Release Date: 2012-03-22 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== ** The following functions have been imported from the miscellaneous package: cell2csv csvconcat xmlread csv2cell csvexplode xmlwrite Their error messages and help messages have been cleaned up a bit. ** Bug fixes: --- odsfinfo: fixed "wrong type argument `cell'" bug when run interactively. --- xlsopen, odsopen: fixed messed up screen output due to UNO usage warning. --- csv2cell: checks if file is empty and if so, return an empty cell. --- xlsopen: better Java detection logic, more informative error messages ** Adapted to internal LibreOffice-3.5-final changes. Some bugs (flashing LO screens) still have to be fixed upstream - see here: https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=42470 ** Tried OpenXLS-6.0.7.jar. Reads OK, still unusable for writing .xls files. =============================================================================== io-1.0.17 Release Date: 2012-02-27 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== ** Bug fixes: --- oct2ods, oct2xls, odswrite default range input arg. These functions may not have worked properly for two years (!) ** Fixed support for odfdom v.0.8.7 (ODS). Note: the OTK interface only works well with xercesImpl.jar 2.9.1 (Sep 14, 2009) ** Many small bug fixes & documentation updated to actual functionality. ** Fixed "seealso" texinfo header string in almost all functions. ** Added formal test scripts to "internal functions" section. =============================================================================== io-1.0.16 Release Date: 2012-01-19 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== ** Bug fixing release ** PKG_ADD now expects Java spreadsheet class libs (.jars) in /lib/java (for MinGW) =============================================================================== io-1.0.15 Release Date: 2011-10-02 Release Manager: Philip Nienhuis =============================================================================== io-1.0.15 is primarily a bug fix release and a snapshot / wrap-up of current development status (some still a bit experimental). It mainly comprises: ** A number of bug fixes (incl. some serious ones, notably with .ods/OOo Calc); ** Some mainly cosmetic improvements to existing code; less verbosity; ** pch2mat (reading & transforming Nastran PCH files, contributed by B. Oytun Peksel); ** object2json.m (creating a json description string of objects, contributed by Daniel Torre). This was already silently introduced in io-1.0.14; ** A scripted troubleshooting / classpath setup tool for spreadsheet I/O support (chk_spreadsheet_support.m); ** Experimental OXS support (OpenXLS) for reading Excel xls (BIFF8). OpenXLS is -let's say- a little bit lacking: For reading it is faster than JXL. However, while OXS write support has been coded (and works) I had to disable it as the OXS Java classes won't release the file handle so Octave will hang upon closing :-( I'm stuck with this so I just release it as-is; ** Experimental UNO support, i.e. invoking OpenOffice.org (or clones like LibreOffice) behind the scenes to read spreadsheet files, much like ActiveX/COM for MS-Excel. This is also based on Java. The first time you use UNO, OOo has to be loaded and you'll have to be patient, but once loaded (and in the OS cache) you'll see the pros: --* Very fast; --* Much lower Java memory usage as OOo loads the spreadsheet in its own memory chunk (not Octave's) => much bigger spreadsheet capacity; --* You can read *all* formats supported by OOo: .ods, .xls, .csv, .xlsx, .sxc, .dbf, Lotus wk1, Quattro Pro, ......; and it doesn't really matter whether xlsopen of odsopen is used. Of course all this wonderful stuff comes at a prize: --* After closing the spreadsheet file (odsclose, xlsclose) ALL OOo invocations will be closed, also those started outside Octave. This is due to "the way OpenOffice works" (quoted from OOo dev forum), especially through Java. There are other ways to close OOo but they'll hang Octave; --* The Java UNO classes supplied with e.g. LibreOffice aren't kept quite up-to-date with the main program. As a consequence, with e.g., LibreOffice 3.4 the main LO window will pop up (it can't be hidden). I filed a bug report for this (https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=40991) but I haven't seen it being picked up yet. Another example: while LO 3.3.1's row capacity was already > 10^6, it took until LO 3.4 before this capacity was implemented in the Java UNO classes. Like with OXS, I'm a bit stuck here - all this has to be fixed upstream. Hint: for older Octave versions (< 3.4.0) you can install io-1.0.15 using the -nodeps flag. You'll then loose the old and buggy textread and csv/dlm-read/write functions but I'd consider that as no big loss. <please scroll up/back to see rest of io NEWS>
Package: io