Excel Viewer for VS Code: XLSX, XLS, ODS & CSV Spreadsheet Viewer

Open Excel spreadsheets right inside VS Code. Click an .xlsx file and read it as a real spreadsheet, with sheet tabs, search and sorting, instead of a screen of unreadable characters. No Microsoft Office or LibreOffice needed.

Excel Viewer: an XLSX workbook with several sheets opened as a spreadsheet in VS Code

Without Excel Viewer	With Excel Viewer
VS Code says the file is binary and shows nothing useful	The spreadsheet opens in an editor tab, like any other file
Leave your editor and wait for a spreadsheet app to start	One click in the Explorer
Convert the file to CSV just to look at a column	Search, sort and copy cells in place

Works with Excel workbooks (.xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, .xlsb), OpenDocument spreadsheets (.ods) and CSV / TSV files.

Search rows in an Excel file inside VS Code

Sort an XLSX spreadsheet by column in VS Code

What you can do

Open spreadsheets in one click: Excel and OpenDocument files open as a grid, with row numbers and column letters.
Switch between sheets: every sheet of the workbook has its tab at the bottom.
Search: type a word to keep only the rows that contain it, with the number of matches.
Sort: click a column header to sort from A to Z, Z to A, or back to the original order.
See formulas: select a cell to read its value or its formula.
Copy cells: select a range and copy it with Ctrl+C / Cmd+C, ready to paste into a spreadsheet, an email or a chat.
Export to CSV: save the sheet you are looking at as a .csv file.
Large files: opens sheets with hundreds of thousands of rows (tested with 200,000).
Always up to date: the view refreshes when the file changes on disk.
Matches your theme: light or dark, it uses the colors of your VS Code theme.

Quick start

Install Excel Viewer.
Click an .xlsx, .xls, .xlsm, .xlsb or .ods file in the Explorer.

For a CSV or TSV file, right-click it and choose Excel Viewer: Open as Spreadsheet.

Supported files

File type	Extensions
Excel workbook	`.xlsx`, `.xlsm`, `.xlsb`
Excel 97-2003 workbook	`.xls`
OpenDocument spreadsheet	`.ods`
CSV and TSV	`.csv`, `.tsv`

Files up to 50 MB. Password-protected workbooks are not supported.

FAQ

Can I edit a spreadsheet? Not yet. Excel Viewer is a viewer. If you try to edit a cell, it asks whether editing would be useful to you.

Is my file sent anywhere? No. Your spreadsheet is opened on your computer and never leaves it.

Why does my CSV open as text? CSV files keep the normal text editor by default. Right-click the file and choose Excel Viewer: Open as Spreadsheet, or use Open With... to make Excel Viewer the default.

Are formulas recalculated? No. You see the values saved in the file.

Privacy

Excel Viewer never sends file names, paths or cell contents. It sends anonymous usage statistics (for example: a file was opened, the search was used, the answer to the editing question) to mobilepreview.lirobi.com, with a random identifier that is not linked to you. Nothing is sent when telemetry is turned off in VS Code.

Legal

Microsoft and Excel are trademarks of the Microsoft group of companies. LibreOffice is a trademark of The Document Foundation. Excel Viewer is an independent product. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or sponsored by Microsoft or The Document Foundation.

Excel Viewer - XLSX, XLS, ODS & CSV Spreadsheet Viewer

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