SSCONVERT

Section: GNOME (1)
Updated: 2020-04-19
Page Index

NAME

ssconvert - a command line spreadsheet format converter

SYNOPSIS

ssconvert [OPTIONS] infile outfile

ssconvert [OPTIONS] --merge-to outfile infile1 infile2 ...

DESCRIPTION

ssconvert is a command line utility to convert spreadsheet files between various spreadsheet file formats. It is a companion utility to Gnumeric, the powerful spreadsheet program created by the GNOME project.

ssconvert accepts either file names or URIs as infile outfile. The special URIs fd://0 and fd://1 can be used for standard input and standard output respectively.

OPTIONS

This program follows the usual GNU command line syntax, with single letter options starting with a single dash (`-') and longer options starting with two dashes (`--').

Main options

--recalc: Recalculate all cells before writing the result.
--set CELL=CONTENTS: Set the value of CELL to CONTENTS. To put an expression in a cell, add an extra =, for example --set "A11==A10+1". This option may be repeated as many times as needed. The workbook will be recalculated after all cells have been set, provided that the workbook is set for automatic recalculation. If not, recalculation can be forced with --recalc.
-v, --verbose: Be slightly more verbose about what is going on.
--list-exporters: List the available exporters (file formats that can be written).
-T, --export-type=ID: Specify which exporter to use; see below for a list. This is only necessary when the right format does not follow from the output file name. The list of available export formats can be generated using the --list-exporters option. However, when image export is requested using the --export-graphs option, the list of image formats should be consulted instead. That list can be generated using the --list-image-formats option.
-O, --export-options=optionsstring: Specify parameters for the chosen exporter. optionsstring is a list of parameter=value pairs, separated by spaces. The parameter names and values allowed are specific to the exporter and are documented below. Multiple parameters can be specified
--export-graphs: Export the graphs (or charts) inside the input spreadsheet to numbered image files (SVG by default). The list of available image formats can be printed with --list-image-formats
--list-importers: List the available importers (file formats that can be read). -I, --import-type=ID Specify which importer to use; see below for a list. This is only necessary when the right format does not follow from the input file name.
--list-image-formats: List the available image formats for graph export
-E, --import-encoding=STRING: Specify an encoding for imported content.
-M, --merge-to=FILENAME: Merge a collection of workbooks into one. Sheet size will expand to the largest in all the workbooks. Names in the scope of individual workbooks will end up in the scope of the merged workbook. The merge will be aborted if there are name conflicts.
-S, --export-file-per-sheet: Export a file for each sheet if the exporter only supports one sheet at a time. The output filename is treated as a template in which sheet number is substituted for %n, sheet name is substituted for %s, and sheet object name is substituted for %o in case of graph export. If there are no substitutions, a default of ".%n" is added.

Help options

--version: Display ssconvert's version.
-h, --help, --usage: Display a brief usage message.
--help-all: Show all help options.
--help-libspreadsheet: Show Gnumeric options.

LIST OF IMPORTER/EXPORTER IDS

The following IDs can be can be used both for import (reading) and export (writing).

Gnumeric_XmlIO:sax: Gnumeric's XML file format (*.gnumeric)
Gnumeric_OpenCalc:openoffice: OpenDocument <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument > or OpenOffice Calc <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenOffice.org_Calc > (*.sxc, *.ods) format. As an exporter, this is ODF/OpenOffice without foreign elements (*.ods).
Gnumeric_dif:dif: Data Interchange Format <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Interchange_Format > (*.dif)
Gnumeric_paradox:paradox: Paradox database <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paradox_%28database%29 > or primary index file (*.db, *.px)
Gnumeric_stf:stf_assistant: Text (configurable)
Gnumeric_sylk:sylk: MultiPlan <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiplan > Symbolic Link (SYLK) <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SYmbolic_LinK_%28SYLK%29 > (*.slk)
Gnumeric_Excel:xlsx: Microsoft Excel (tm) 2007 ("Office Open XML", OOXML <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XLSX > ) format

LIST OF IMPORTANT IMPORTER IDS

Gnumeric_stf:stf_csvtab: Comma or tab separated values (CSV/TSV) (*.csv)
Gnumeric_html:html: HTML (*.html, *.htm)
Gnumeric_Excel:excel: Microsoft Excel (tm) (*.xls)
Gnumeric_Excel:excel_xml: Microsoft Excel (tm) 2003 SpreadsheetML

LIST OF OTHER IMPORTER IDS

Gnumeric_QPro:qpro: Quattro Pro <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quattro_Pro > (*.wb1, *.wb2, *.wb3)
Gnumeric_applix:applix: Applix (*.as)
Gnumeric_lotus:lotus: Lotus 1-2-3 <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_1-2-3 > (*.wk1, *.wks, *.123)
Gnumeric_mps:mps: MPS (Mathematical Programming System) format <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MPS_%28format%29 > Linear programming and mixed integer programming file format (*.mps)
Gnumeric_oleo:oleo: GNU Oleo <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GNU_Oleo > (*.oleo)
Gnumeric_plan_perfect:pln: PlanPerfect Format (PLN)
Gnumeric_psiconv:psiconv: Psion (*.psisheet)
Gnumeric_sc:sc: SC/xspread
Gnumeric_xbase:xbase: xBase <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XBase > (*.dbf) file format

LIST OF IMPORTANT EXPORTER IDS

Gnumeric_OpenCalc:odf: ODF/OpenOffice with foreign elements (*.ods)
Gnumeric_glpk:glpk: GLPK Linear Program Solver
Gnumeric_html:html40: HTML 4.0 (*.html)
Gnumeric_html:html40frag: HTML (*.html) fragment
Gnumeric_html:xhtml: XHTML (*.html)
Gnumeric_html:xhtml_range: XHTML range - for export to clipboard
Gnumeric_pdf:pdf_assistant: Portable Document Format (*.PDF)
Gnumeric_stf:stf_csv: Comma separated values (CSV)
Gnumeric_Excel:excel_dsf: Microsoft Excel (tm) 97/2000/XP & 5.0/95

LIST OF OTHER EXPORTER IDS

Gnumeric_Excel:excel_biff7: Microsoft Excel (tm) 5.0/95
Gnumeric_Excel:excel_biff8: Microsoft S Excel (tm) 97/2000/XP
Gnumeric_GnomeGlossary:po: Gnome Glossary PO file format
Gnumeric_html:html32: HTML 3.2 (*.html)
Gnumeric_html:latex: LaTeX 2e (*.tex)
Gnumeric_html:latex_table: LaTeX 2e (*.tex) table fragment
Gnumeric_html:roff: TROFF <URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Troff > (*.me) format.
Gnumeric_lpsolve:lpsolve: LPSolve <URL: http://sourceforge.net/projects/lpsolve/ > Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) solver

OPTIONS FOR THE PORTABLE DOCUMENT FORMAT (*.pdf) EXPORTER

sheet: Name of the workbook sheet to operate on. You can specify several sheets by repeating this option. This is ignored if the object option is given.
active-sheet: Select the active sheet to operate on. The value for this option is irrelevant, but the equal sign is mandatory.
object: Name of the sheet object to print. If this option is given any sheet option is ignored. Only the first object given is exported.
paper: Paper size. Valid values include "A4" for ISO A4 and "na_letter_8.5x11in" for US Letter. If an individual graph is specified through the object option, then a paper size of "fit" reduces the size of the paper to the size of the graph.

OPTIONS FOR THE CONFIGURABLE TEXT (*.txt) EXPORTER

sheet

Name of the workbook sheet to operate on. You can specify several sheets by repeating this option.

active-sheet

Select the active sheet to operate on. The value for this option is irrelevant, but the equal sign is mandatory.

eol

End Of Line convention; how lines are terminated. "unix" for linefeed, "mac" for carriage return; "windows" for carriage return plus linefeed.

charset

The character encoding of the output. Defaults to UTF-8.

locale

The locale to use for number and date formatting. Defaults to the current locale as reported by locale(1). Consult locale -a output for acceptable values.

quote

The character or string used for quoting fields. Defaults to "\"" (quotation mark / double quote).

separator

The string used to separate fields. Defaults to space.

format

How cells should be formatted. Acceptable values: "automatic" (apply automatic formatting; default), "raw" (output data raw, unformatted), or "preserve" (preserve the formatting from the source document).

This deals with the difference between a cell's contents and the way those contents are formatted.

Consider a cell in a Gnumeric input document that was input as "4/19/73" in a US locale, with a format set to "d-mmm-yyyy" and thus formatted as "19-Apr-1973".

With the default format setting of "automatic" it will be output as "1973/04/19". With "preserve", the formatting will be preserved and it will be output as "19-Apr-1973". With "raw" it will be output as "26773" (Gnumeric's internal representation: days since an epoch).

transliterate-mode

How to handle unrepresentable characters (characters that cannot be represented in the chosen output character set). Acceptable values: "transliterate", or "escape".

quoting-mode

When does data need to be quoted? "never", "auto" (puts quotes where needed), or "always". Defaults to "auto".

quoting-on-whitespace

Controls whether initial or terminal whitespace forces quoting. Defaults to TRUE.

EXAMPLE

To convert the Gnumeric file foo.gnumeric to a Microsoft Excel(TM) format file foo.xls:

ssconvert foo.gnumeric foo.xls

The export format can be specified explicitly, to override the default (which is based on the file extension):

ssconvert --export-type=Gnumeric_stf:stf_csv foo.xls foo.txt

To convert an Excel format file statfuns.xls to a text file, specifying the semicolon as the separator character:

ssconvert -O 'separator=; format=raw' samples/excel/statfuns.xls statfuns.txt

To export the charts from the input file input.gnumeric to numbered SVG files:

ssconvert --export-graphs input.gnumeric 'output.%n.svg'

To export the charts from the input file input.gnumeric to numbered PNG files:

ssconvert --export-type=png --export-graphs input.gnumeric 'output.%n.png'

LICENSE

ssconvert is licensed under the terms of the General Public License (GPL), version 2 or 3. For information on this license look at the source code that came with the software or see the GNU project page <URL: http://www.gnu.org >.

COPYRIGHT

The copyright on the Gnumeric software and source code is held by the individual authors as is documented in the source code.

AUTHOR

ssconvert's primary author is Jody Goldberg <jody@gnome.org>; ssconvert builds on the Gnumeric codebase.

The initial version of this manpage was written by J.H.M. Dassen (Ray) <jdassen@debian.org>.