Setting column width for .xls

I have gone through the docs, and the relevant examples I have found, even the test files on the repo, and all seem to be dealing with xlsx files (for which I have no difficulty to set the column widths), but none of the solutions I found work with xls files.

I am setting the bookType when writing the file, and using wpx when setting the column properties.

So, how would one go about doing that?

[SheetJSDev]

The following should work for BIFF8 XLS write. Feel free to send a PR:

diff --git a/bits/39_xlsbiff.js b/bits/39_xlsbiff.js
index b5eb743..755b5de 100644
--- a/bits/39_xlsbiff.js
+++ b/bits/39_xlsbiff.js
@@ -967,6 +967,20 @@ function parse_ColInfo(blob, length, opts) {
        if(opts.biff >= 5 || !opts.biff) o.level = (flags >> 8) & 0x7;
        return o;
 }
+function write_ColInfo(col, idx) {
+       var o = new_buf(12);
+       o.write_shift(2, idx);
+       o.write_shift(2, idx);
+       o.write_shift(2, col.width * 256);
+       o.write_shift(2, 0);
+       var f = 0;
+       if(col.hidden) f |= 1;
+       o.write_shift(1, f);
+       f = col.level || 0;
+       o.write_shift(1, f);
+       o.write_shift(2, 0);
+       return o;
+}
 
 /* [MS-XLS] 2.4.257 */
 function parse_Setup(blob, length) {

diff --git a/bits/78_writebiff.js b/bits/78_writebiff.js
index 6d0cf37..d761cae 100644
--- a/bits/78_writebiff.js
+++ b/bits/78_writebiff.js
@@ -164,6 +164,16 @@ function write_ws_biff8_hlinks(ba/*:BufArray*/, ws) {
        delete ws['!links'];
 }
 
+function write_ws_cols_biff8(ba, cols, ws) {
+       if(!cols) return;
+       var cnt = 0;
+       cols.forEach(function(col, idx) {
+               if(++cnt <= 256 && col) {
+                       write_biff_rec(ba, "ColInfo", write_ColInfo(col_obj_w(idx, col), idx));
+               }
+       });
+}
+
 function write_ws_biff8_cell(ba/*:BufArray*/, cell/*:Cell*/, R/*:number*/, C/*:number*/, opts) {
        var os = 16 + get_cell_style(opts.cellXfs, cell, opts);
        if(cell.v == null && !cell.bf) {
@@ -227,6 +237,8 @@ function write_ws_biff8(idx/*:number*/, opts, wb/*:Workbook*/) {
        write_biff_rec(ba, "HCenter", writebool(false));
        write_biff_rec(ba, "VCenter", writebool(false));
        /* ... */
+       if(b8) write_ws_cols_biff8(ba, ws["!cols"], ws);
+       /* ... */
        write_biff_rec(ba, 0x200, write_Dimensions(range, opts));
        /* ... */

Here’s a simple test you can run once you make those changes:

var widths = [1,2,3,4,5,6,7];
var ws = XLSX.utils.aoa_to_sheet([
	widths,
	widths.map(function(n) { return new Array(n+1).join("0"); }) // wch is based on "0"
]);
ws["!cols"] = widths.map(function(w) { return { wch: w }; });
var wb = XLSX.utils.book_new();
XLSX.utils.book_append_sheet(wb, ws, "Width");
XLSX.writeFile(wb, "issue1208.xls");

[Vacalexis]

Hello, I’m experiencing the same problem. Column width works for .xlsx files but not for .ods or .xls. Any news on this subject?

Similar issue here: https://github.com/SheetJS/sheetjs/issues/1454