Adding data to a worksheet

To add some sample expense data to a worksheet we could start with a simple program like the following:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
//
// Copyright 2022-2024, John McNamara, jmcnamara@cpan.org

//! A simple program to write some data to an Excel spreadsheet using
//! rust_xlsxwriter. Part 1 of a tutorial.

use rust_xlsxwriter::{Formula, Workbook, XlsxError};

fn main() -> Result<(), XlsxError> {
    // Some sample data we want to write to a spreadsheet.
    let expenses = vec![("Rent", 2000), ("Gas", 200), ("Food", 500), ("Gym", 100)];

    // Create a new Excel file object.
    let mut workbook = Workbook::new();

    // Add a worksheet to the workbook.
    let worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet();

    // Iterate over the data and write it out row by row.
    let mut row = 0;
    for expense in &expenses {
        worksheet.write(row, 0, expense.0)?;
        worksheet.write(row, 1, expense.1)?;
        row += 1;
    }

    // Write a total using a formula.
    worksheet.write(row, 0, "Total")?;
    worksheet.write(row, 1, Formula::new("=SUM(B1:B4)"))?;

    // Save the file to disk.
    workbook.save("tutorial1.xlsx")?;

    Ok(())
}

If we run this program we should get a spreadsheet that looks like this:

Image of tutorial 1

This is a simple program but it demonstrates some of the steps that would apply to any rust_xlsxwriter program.

The first step is to create a new workbook object using the Workbook constructor Workbook::new():

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
//
// Copyright 2022-2024, John McNamara, jmcnamara@cpan.org

//! A simple program to write some data to an Excel spreadsheet using
//! rust_xlsxwriter. Part 1 of a tutorial.

use rust_xlsxwriter::{Formula, Workbook, XlsxError};

fn main() -> Result<(), XlsxError> {
    // Some sample data we want to write to a spreadsheet.
    let expenses = vec![("Rent", 2000), ("Gas", 200), ("Food", 500), ("Gym", 100)];

    // Create a new Excel file object.
    let mut workbook = Workbook::new();

    // Add a worksheet to the workbook.
    let worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet();

    // Iterate over the data and write it out row by row.
    let mut row = 0;
    for expense in &expenses {
        worksheet.write(row, 0, expense.0)?;
        worksheet.write(row, 1, expense.1)?;
        row += 1;
    }

    // Write a total using a formula.
    worksheet.write(row, 0, "Total")?;
    worksheet.write(row, 1, Formula::new("=SUM(B1:B4)"))?;

    // Save the file to disk.
    workbook.save("tutorial1.xlsx")?;

    Ok(())
}

Note, rust_xlsxwriter can only create new files. It cannot read or modify existing files.

The workbook object is then used to add a new worksheet via the add_worksheet() method:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
//
// Copyright 2022-2024, John McNamara, jmcnamara@cpan.org

//! A simple program to write some data to an Excel spreadsheet using
//! rust_xlsxwriter. Part 1 of a tutorial.

use rust_xlsxwriter::{Formula, Workbook, XlsxError};

fn main() -> Result<(), XlsxError> {
    // Some sample data we want to write to a spreadsheet.
    let expenses = vec![("Rent", 2000), ("Gas", 200), ("Food", 500), ("Gym", 100)];

    // Create a new Excel file object.
    let mut workbook = Workbook::new();

    // Add a worksheet to the workbook.
    let worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet();

    // Iterate over the data and write it out row by row.
    let mut row = 0;
    for expense in &expenses {
        worksheet.write(row, 0, expense.0)?;
        worksheet.write(row, 1, expense.1)?;
        row += 1;
    }

    // Write a total using a formula.
    worksheet.write(row, 0, "Total")?;
    worksheet.write(row, 1, Formula::new("=SUM(B1:B4)"))?;

    // Save the file to disk.
    workbook.save("tutorial1.xlsx")?;

    Ok(())
}

The worksheet will have a standard Excel name, in this case "Sheet1". You can specify the worksheet name using the worksheet.set_name() method.

We then iterate over the data and use the worksheet.write() method which converts common Rust types to the equivalent Excel types and writes them to the specified row, col location in the worksheet:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
//
// Copyright 2022-2024, John McNamara, jmcnamara@cpan.org

//! A simple program to write some data to an Excel spreadsheet using
//! rust_xlsxwriter. Part 1 of a tutorial.

use rust_xlsxwriter::{Formula, Workbook, XlsxError};

fn main() -> Result<(), XlsxError> {
    // Some sample data we want to write to a spreadsheet.
    let expenses = vec![("Rent", 2000), ("Gas", 200), ("Food", 500), ("Gym", 100)];

    // Create a new Excel file object.
    let mut workbook = Workbook::new();

    // Add a worksheet to the workbook.
    let worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet();

    // Iterate over the data and write it out row by row.
    let mut row = 0;
    for expense in &expenses {
        worksheet.write(row, 0, expense.0)?;
        worksheet.write(row, 1, expense.1)?;
        row += 1;
    }

    // Write a total using a formula.
    worksheet.write(row, 0, "Total")?;
    worksheet.write(row, 1, Formula::new("=SUM(B1:B4)"))?;

    // Save the file to disk.
    workbook.save("tutorial1.xlsx")?;

    Ok(())
}

Reading ahead:

There are other type specific write methods such as worksheet.write_string() and worksheet.write_number(). However, these aren't generally required and thanks to Rust's monomorphization the performance of the generic write() method is just as fast.

There are also worksheet methods for writing arrays of data or arrays of arrays of data that can be useful in cases where you don't need to add specific formatting:

worksheet.write_row()

worksheet.write_column()

worksheet.write_row_matrix()

worksheet.write_column_matrix()

Throughout rust_xlsxwriter rows and columns are zero indexed. So, for example, the first cell in a worksheet, A1, is (0, 0).

To calculate the total of the items in the second column we add a Formula like this:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
//
// Copyright 2022-2024, John McNamara, jmcnamara@cpan.org

//! A simple program to write some data to an Excel spreadsheet using
//! rust_xlsxwriter. Part 1 of a tutorial.

use rust_xlsxwriter::{Formula, Workbook, XlsxError};

fn main() -> Result<(), XlsxError> {
    // Some sample data we want to write to a spreadsheet.
    let expenses = vec![("Rent", 2000), ("Gas", 200), ("Food", 500), ("Gym", 100)];

    // Create a new Excel file object.
    let mut workbook = Workbook::new();

    // Add a worksheet to the workbook.
    let worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet();

    // Iterate over the data and write it out row by row.
    let mut row = 0;
    for expense in &expenses {
        worksheet.write(row, 0, expense.0)?;
        worksheet.write(row, 1, expense.1)?;
        row += 1;
    }

    // Write a total using a formula.
    worksheet.write(row, 0, "Total")?;
    worksheet.write(row, 1, Formula::new("=SUM(B1:B4)"))?;

    // Save the file to disk.
    workbook.save("tutorial1.xlsx")?;

    Ok(())
}

Finally, we save and close the Excel file via the workbook.save() method which will generate the spreadsheet shown in the image above.:

// SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT OR Apache-2.0
//
// Copyright 2022-2024, John McNamara, jmcnamara@cpan.org

//! A simple program to write some data to an Excel spreadsheet using
//! rust_xlsxwriter. Part 1 of a tutorial.

use rust_xlsxwriter::{Formula, Workbook, XlsxError};

fn main() -> Result<(), XlsxError> {
    // Some sample data we want to write to a spreadsheet.
    let expenses = vec![("Rent", 2000), ("Gas", 200), ("Food", 500), ("Gym", 100)];

    // Create a new Excel file object.
    let mut workbook = Workbook::new();

    // Add a worksheet to the workbook.
    let worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet();

    // Iterate over the data and write it out row by row.
    let mut row = 0;
    for expense in &expenses {
        worksheet.write(row, 0, expense.0)?;
        worksheet.write(row, 1, expense.1)?;
        row += 1;
    }

    // Write a total using a formula.
    worksheet.write(row, 0, "Total")?;
    worksheet.write(row, 1, Formula::new("=SUM(B1:B4)"))?;

    // Save the file to disk.
    workbook.save("tutorial1.xlsx")?;

    Ok(())
}

Reading ahead:

The workbook.save() method takes a std::path argument which can be a Path, PathBuf or a filename string. It is also possible to save to a byte vector using workbook.save_to_buffer().

Working with the rust_xlsxwriter library

Adding data to a worksheet