Sample Excel File Download

Microsoft Excel (.xlsx) is a standard format for data analysis and business reporting. These sample workbooks provide clean, structured rows for testing spreadsheet imports, automation scripts, and data-processing workflows.

Technical Details

These Excel samples include currency-like values, date strings, percentages, and common business columns for testing import and parsing workflows.

• Correct Container: Downloads are real Office Open XML workbooks with the `.xlsx` extension and MIME type.
• Optimized for Testing: Useful for verifying XLSX parsers, Python (Pandas/Openpyxl) scripts, and Java (Apache POI) implementations.
• Data Integrity: No macros or hidden scripts—just clean tabular workbook data.

Deep dive into the official specifications via Microsoft Developer docs or explore Excel historical context .

Excel files are used across virtually every business domain - from HR and finance to inventory and project management. The examples below show how to read, analyze, and generate Excel files programmatically, which is essential for building automated report pipelines and testing import features.

How to Read an Excel File in Python (openpyxl)

The openpyxl library is the standard Python tool for reading and writing .xlsx files. It gives you direct access to individual cells, rows, and sheets.

import openpyxl

wb = openpyxl.load_workbook("sample-employees.xlsx")
ws = wb.active

# Print all rows (skip header row)
for row in ws.iter_rows(min_row=2, values_only=True):
    emp_id, name, email, dept, position, salary, hire_date = row
    print(f"{name} ({dept}): {salary}")

How to Read an Excel File in Python (pandas)

For data analysis tasks, pandas provides a higher-level interface that loads the entire sheet into a DataFrame in a single line.

import pandas as pd

df = pd.read_excel("sample-employees.xlsx", sheet_name=0)

# Calculate average salary
print("Average Salary:", df["Salary"].str.replace("$", "").str.replace(",", "").astype(float).mean())

# Filter by department
it_team = df[df["Department"] == "Engineering"]
print(it_team[["Name", "Position"]])

How to Read an Excel File in JavaScript (SheetJS)

SheetJS (also known as xlsx) is the most widely used Excel parser in the JavaScript ecosystem and works in both the browser and Node.js.

const XLSX = require("xlsx");

const workbook = XLSX.readFile("sample-employees.xlsx");
const sheetName = workbook.SheetNames[0];
const sheet = workbook.Sheets[sheetName];

// Convert sheet to array of objects (header row becomes keys)
const data = XLSX.utils.sheet_to_json(sheet);
data.forEach((row) => {
  console.log(row["Name"], row["Department"], row["Salary"]);
});

How to Import an Excel File into Microsoft Excel

The downloads are standard .xlsx workbooks. Open them directly in Microsoft Excel, Google Sheets, LibreOffice Calc, or another application that supports Office Open XML.

Creating Excel files programmatically is one of the most common automation tasks in business software. The two most reliable approaches are using openpyxl in Python for server-side generation, or SheetJS in JavaScript for browser-side generation without a server.

Creating an Excel File in Python (openpyxl)

import openpyxl
from openpyxl.styles import Font

wb = openpyxl.Workbook()
ws = wb.active
ws.title = "Employees"

# Write headers with bold formatting
headers = ["ID", "Name", "Department", "Salary"]
ws.append(headers)
for cell in ws[1]:
    cell.font = Font(bold=True)

# Write data rows
employees = [
    [1, "Alice Johnson", "Engineering", 125000],
    [2, "Bob Smith", "Sales", 85000],
    [3, "Carol White", "HR", 105000],
]
for emp in employees:
    ws.append(emp)

wb.save("output.xlsx")
print("Excel file created successfully.")

Creating an Excel File in JavaScript (SheetJS / Node.js)

const XLSX = require("xlsx");

const data = [
  ["ID", "Name", "Department", "Salary"],
  [1, "Alice Johnson", "Engineering", 125000],
  [2, "Bob Smith", "Sales", 85000],
  [3, "Carol White", "HR", 105000],
];

const ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet(data);
const wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();
XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, "Employees");
XLSX.writeFile(wb, "output.xlsx");
console.log("Excel file created successfully.");

Common mistakes to avoid: Do not try to generate .xlsx files by writing raw XML strings manually - the format is a ZIP archive containing multiple interlinked XML files, and hand-crafting it is error-prone. Always use an established library. When formatting currency columns, store the raw number and apply a number format string ("$#,##0.00") rather than storing the formatted string - this preserves the ability to sort and calculate.