Excel

.xlsx.xls

Supported

Microsoft Excel format (.xlsx and .xls) is the most commonly used spreadsheet format. Similar to CSV, coordinate columns in Excel files can be used to create geographic features. XLSX is the modern Office Open XML format, and XLS is the traditional binary format. Excel format offers advantages over CSV including multiple worksheets, data type validation, and formatting.

Specifications

Standard: Microsoft

MIME: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet, application/vnd.ms-excel

Key Features

Supports multiple worksheets, data types, and formatting with richer expression than CSV
Deep integration with Microsoft Office ecosystem
Can be converted to GIS formats like GeoJSON and Shapefile via coordinate columns

Advantages

Non-technical users can directly edit geographic data in Excel
Supports large number of rows (XLSX supports over 1 million rows)

Limitations

Binary format, larger file size than CSV
Requires specialized libraries for parsing, not as universal as CSV

Common Use Cases

Extracting coordinate data from business Excel reports
Structured management of batch address and coordinate data