converting an Excel (xls) file to a comma separated (csv) file without the GUI

Question

Is there a simple way to translate an XLS to a CSV formatted file without starting the Excel windowed application?

I need to process some Excel XLS workbooks with sc

Answer 1

From Gnumeric docs:

Gnumeric can convert files automatically without needing user intervention. This allows a large number of files to be converted using a script. Gnumeric is distributed along with a program called ssconvert which is the program used to convert files automatically. All of the file formats supported by Gnumeric can be used except for the Postscript and PDF file formats which operate through the printing system.

This application is used, from the command line by specifying, any desired options, an input file and an output file. For example,

ssconvert myfile.xls myfile.gnumeric

would convert an Excel format file to a Gnumeric format file.

The available import and export file formats which ssconvert can read can be listed using

ssconvert --list-importers

or

ssconvert --list-exporters

respectively.

Like other GNU command line applications, ssconvert includes a manual page. This page can be accessed by typing:

man ssconvert

which will open the manual page. This page can be navigated by typing the space bar or using the Page Up and Page Down buttons. The man program can be dismissed by typing the q key.

I'm using it and works well.