Creating Excel files with C and libxlsxwriter

Libxlsxwriter is a C library for creating Excel XLSX files.

(Sample code to create the above spreadsheet.)

libxlsxwriter

Libxlsxwriter is a C library that can be used to write text, numbers, formulas and hyperlinks to multiple worksheets in an Excel 2007+ XLSX file. It supports features such as:

• 100% compatible Excel XLSX files.
• Full Excel formatting.
• Merged cells.
• Defined names.
• Autofilters.
• Charts.
• Data validation and dropdown lists.
• Conditional formatting.
• Worksheet PNG/JPEG/GIF images.
• Cell comments.
• Support for adding Macros.
• Memory optimization mode for writing large files.
• Source code available on GitHub.
• FreeBSD License.
• ANSI C.
• Works with GCC, Clang, Xcode, MSVC 2015, ICC, TCC, MinGW, MingGW-w64/32.
• Works on Linux, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, OS X, iOS and Windows. Also works on MSYS/MSYS2 and Cygwin.
• Compiles for 32 and 64 bit.
• Compiles and works on big and little endian systems.
• The only dependency is on zlib.

This document explains how to use the libxlsxwriter library. See the following sections for more information:

• Introduction
• Getting Started with libxlsxwriter
• Tutorial 1: Create a simple XLSX file
• Tutorial 2: Adding formatting to the XLSX File
• Tutorial 3: Writing different types of data to the XLSX File
• The Workbook object
• The Worksheet object
• The Format object
• The Chart object
• The Chartsheet object
• Utility functions and macros
• Working with Formats
• Working with Colors
• Working with Formulas
• Working with Dates and Times
• Working with Charts
• Working with Object Positioning
• Working with Autofilters
• Working with Data Validation
• Working with Conditional Formatting
• Working with Worksheet Tables
• Working with Cell Comments
• Working with Outlines and Grouping
• Working with Memory and Performance
• Working with VBA Macros
• Example Programs
• Running the Test Suite
• Frequently Asked Questions
• Known Issues and Bugs
• Author
• License
• Changes