define Cell Data Format

Is there a way to enforce Cell Data Format for empty cells?

I generate the sheet with:

const ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([['column 1', 'column 2', 'column 3']]);
const wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();
XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, 'SheetJS');
const contents = XLSX.write(wb, { type: 'buffer', bookType: 'xlsx' });

however, after downloading the sheet and opening it in Numbers the Data Format is automatic. I want to enforce this to be text.

[SheetJSDev]

Samples:

• Types.numbers.zip (rename to Types.numbers)
• Types.xls
• Types.xlsx

To find the formats, run in NodeJS:

> require("xlsx").readFile("Types.xlsx", {cellNF: true, sheetStubs: true}).Sheets["Sheet 1"].A3.z
'm/d/yy h:mm AM/PM'
> require("xlsx").readFile("Types.xlsx", {cellNF: true, sheetStubs: true}).Sheets["Sheet 1"].B3.z
'General'
> require("xlsx").readFile("Types.xlsx", {cellNF: true, sheetStubs: true}).Sheets["Sheet 1"].C3.z
'@'

So forcing “Text” seems to be a matter of setting the cell number format to Text (@ in Excel).

This normally would be

const ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([
	['Date', 'Number', 'Text'],
	[{t: "z", z: "m/d/yy h:mm AM/PM"}, {t:"z", z: "General"}, {t: "z", z: "@"}]
]);
const wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();
XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, 'SheetJS');
XLSX.writeFile(wb, "issue2171.xlsx", { sheetStubs: true });

However there is a logical bug in the cell filtering. Feel free to submit a PR:

diff --git a/bits/67_wsxml.js b/bits/67_wsxml.js
--- a/bits/67_wsxml.js
+++ b/bits/67_wsxml.js
@@ -258,7 +258,7 @@ function write_ws_xml_sheetviews(ws, opts, idx, wb)/*:string*/ {
 
 function write_ws_xml_cell(cell/*:Cell*/, ref, ws, opts/*::, idx, wb*/)/*:string*/ {
        if(cell.c) ws['!comments'].push([ref, cell.c]);
-       if(cell.v === undefined && typeof cell.f !== "string" || cell.t === 'z' && !cell.f) return "";
+       if((cell.v === undefined || cell.t === "z" && !(opts||{}).sheetStubs) && typeof cell.f !== "string" && typeof cell.z == "undefined") return "";
        var vv = "";
        var oldt = cell.t, oldv = cell.v;
        if(cell.t !== "z") switch(cell.t) {

[laurelgr]

Ah, npm website’s latest version is still 0.18.5, I didn’t notice you changed the installation to provide package yourself. 😅 Thanks for the heads up, I have a workaround so I’ll wait for next release.