Question 1

How to read an Excel file into Go structs with go-excel?

Accepted Answer

Use the UnmarshalXLSX function with a struct that has xlsx tags for column mapping. For example, define a struct with fields like `Name string `xlsx:"column(NameOf)"`` and pass a slice pointer to UnmarshalXLSX with the file path. The library handles the parsing automatically into your structs.

Question 2

go-excel vs tealeg/xlsx: which is better for reading data?

Accepted Answer

go-excel is lighter and focused on efficient reading of relational data with ORM-like mapping, ideal for configuration parsing. tealeg/xlsx is more full-featured, supporting both read and write operations, but with higher overhead. Choose go-excel if you only need fast, simple data import without writing capabilities.

Question 3

Does go-excel support writing to Excel files?

Accepted Answer

No, go-excel is a read-only library. It only parses Excel files into Go data structures like structs or maps. If you need to create or modify spreadsheets, you'll need to use a different library such as tealeg/xlsx or excelize.

Question 4

Can I handle .xls files with go-excel?

Accepted Answer

No, go-excel only supports the .xlsx format (Office Open XML). For .xls files, you would need to convert them to .xlsx first or use an alternative library that supports older formats, like github.com/extrame/xls.

Question 5

How to skip rows or set default values in go-excel?

Accepted Answer

Use the Config struct with fields like Skip and default tags. For example, set Config{Skip: 2} to skip two data rows after the title, or add `xlsx:"default(0)"` to a struct field to fill empty cells with a default value, as described in the advance usage section.

Question 6

What's the performance like for large Excel files?

Accepted Answer

go-excel is designed for efficiency in reading relational data, often faster for simple imports due to its focused scope and binary data support. However, for very large or complex sheets, performance may depend on memory usage and configuration; testing with your specific data is recommended.

Question 7

How to use custom unmarshalers for JSON data in cells?

Accepted Answer

Implement the encoding.BinaryUnmarshaler interface on your struct fields. For instance, define a method UnmarshalBinary to parse JSON strings, as shown in the Temp struct example, and use the encoding tag like `xlsx:"encoding(json)"` for automatic JSON decoding.

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