Skip to content

Output format

The default output format is to show one match per line à la grep:

filename:part: value

You can use flags to control the output. The filename and part sections can be suppressed, and you can add a section for the matching XML element's tag (or parent element for attribute and text matches):

filename:part: value          (default)
filename:part:<tag/>: value   (--tag)
part: value                   (--no-filename)
part:<tag/>: value            (--no-filename --tag)
filename: value               (--no-part)
filename:<tag/>: value        (--no-part --tag)
value                         (--no-filename --no-part)
<tag/>: value                 (--no-filename --no-part --tag)

JSON output

Passing --json switches the output to newline-delimited JSON: one JSON object per match, one match per line. Each object always has a value field, and can optionally have file, part, and tag fields.

  • By default file and part are included
  • tag is only included when --tag is passed
  • --no-filename drops file
  • --no-part drops part

Default:

{"file":"workbook.xlsx","part":"xl/workbook.xml","value":"Sheet1"}

With --tag:

{"file":"workbook.xlsx","part":"xl/workbook.xml","tag":"<x:sheet name=\"Sheet1\" sheetId=\"1\"/>","value":"Sheet1"}

With --no-filename and --no-part:

{"value":"Sheet1"}

All values are strings. --json cannot be combined with --count or --only-filenames.

CSV output

xlpath can't produce CSV directly, but you can combine its ND-JSON output with jq's @csv filter. Pick the fields you want, put them in an array, and jq takes care of quoting and escaping:

xlpath //x:sheet/@name workbooks/ --json | jq -r "[.file, .part, .value] | @csv"

"workbooks/report.xlsx","xl/workbook.xml","Summary"
"workbooks/report.xlsx","xl/workbook.xml","Data"
"workbooks/sales.xlsx","xl/workbook.xml","Q1"

To include a header row, use jq's slurp mode (-s) so the header can be emitted once before the data rows:

xlpath //x:sheet/@name workbooks/ --json \
    | jq -rs '(["file","part","value"] | @csv), (.[] | [.file, .part, .value] | @csv)'