Convert Excel#

Important

During conversion you should not expect any Excel macros to operate as we do not support Office macros.

/xls/convert/to/csv#

Converts a xls/xlsx file to csv.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: /v1/xls/convert/to/csv

/xls/convert/to/json#

Converts a xls/xlsx/csv file to json.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: /v1/xls/convert/to/json

/xls/convert/to/html#

Converts a xls/xlsx/csv file to html.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: /v1/xls/convert/to/html

/xls/convert/to/txt#

Converts a xls/xlsx/csv file to txt.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: /v1/xls/convert/to/txt

/xls/convert/to/xml#

Converts a xls/xlsx/csv file to xml.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: /v1/xls/convert/to/xml

/xls/convert/to/pdf#

Converts a xls/xlsx/csv file to pdf.

  • Method: POST

  • Endpoint: /v1/xls/convert/to/pdf

Attributes#

Note

Attributes are case-sensitive and should be inside JSON for POST request, for example:

{
    "url": "https://example.com/file1.pdf"
}

Attribute

Description

Required

url

URL to the source file. 1

yes

httpusername

HTTP auth user name if required to access source url.

no

httppassword

HTTP auth password if required to access source url.

no

worksheetIndex

The index of the worksheet to use.

no

inline

Set to true to return results inside the response. Otherwise, the endpoint will return a link to the output file generated.

no

async

Set async to true for long processes to run in the background, API will then return a jobId which you can use with the Background Job Check endpoint to check the status of the process and retrieve the output while you can proceed with other tasks.

no

name

File name for the generated output, the input must be in string format.

no

expiration

Set the expiration time for the output link in minutes (default is 60 i.e 60 minutes or 1 hour), After this specified duration, any generated output file(s) will be automatically deleted from PDF.co Temporary Files Storage. The maximum duration for link expiration varies based on your current subscription plan. To store permanent input files (e.g. re-usable images, pdf templates, documents) consider using PDF.co Built-In Files Storage.

no

profiles

Use this parameter to set additional configurations for fine-tuning and extra options. Explore the Profiles section for more.

no

Query parameters#

No query parameters accepted.

Payload 3#

{
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/other/Input.xls",
    "async": false,
    "name": "Output"
}

Response 2#

{
    "url": "https://pdf-temp-files.s3.amazonaws.com/bd58508fdbaf41cb81309e2195276305/Input.csv",
    "error": false,
    "status": 200,
    "name": "Output.csv",
    "remainingCredits": 59856
}

CURL#

curl --location --request POST 'https://api.pdf.co/v1/xls/convert/to/csv' \
--header 'x-api-key: *******************' \
--header 'Content-Type: application/json' \
--data-raw '{
    "url": "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/other/Input.xls",
    "async": false
}'

Code samples (XLS to CSV)#

var https = require("https");
var path = require("path");
var fs = require("fs");


// The authentication key (API Key).
// Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
const API_KEY = "***********************************";


// Direct URL of source PDF file.
const SourceFileUrl = "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/other/Input.xls";
// Comma-separated list of page indices (or ranges) to process. Leave empty for all pages. Example: '0,2-5,7-'.
const Pages = "";
// PDF document password. Leave empty for unprotected documents.
const Password = "";
// Destination CSV file name
const DestinationFile = "./result.csv";


// Prepare request to `PDF To CSV` API endpoint
var queryPath = `/v1/xls/convert/to/csv`;

// JSON payload for api request
var jsonPayload = JSON.stringify({
    name: path.basename(DestinationFile), password: Password, pages: Pages, url: SourceFileUrl
});

var reqOptions = {
    host: "api.pdf.co",
    method: "POST",
    path: queryPath,
    headers: {
        "x-api-key": API_KEY,
        "Content-Type": "application/json",
        "Content-Length": Buffer.byteLength(jsonPayload, 'utf8')
    }
};
// Send request
var postRequest = https.request(reqOptions, (response) => {
    response.on("data", (d) => {
        // Parse JSON response
        var data = JSON.parse(d);
        if (data.error == false) {
            // Download CSV file
            var file = fs.createWriteStream(DestinationFile);
            https.get(data.url, (response2) => {
                response2.pipe(file)
                    .on("close", () => {
                        console.log(`Generated CSV file saved as "${DestinationFile}" file.`);
                    });
            });
        }
        else {
            // Service reported error
            console.log(data.message);
        }
    });
}).on("error", (e) => {
    // Request error
    console.log(e);
});

// Write request data
postRequest.write(jsonPayload);
postRequest.end();

import requests
import json

# Your API endpoint URL.
url = "https://api.pdf.co/v1/xls/convert/to/csv"

# Your API Key.
api_key = "Your API Key"

# The URL of the Excel file you want to convert.
input_file_url = "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/other/Input.xls"

headers = {
    "x-api-key": api_key,
    "Content-Type": "application/json"
}

data = {
    "url": input_file_url,
    "async": False
}

response = requests.post(url, headers=headers, json=data)

if response.status_code == 200:
    # The request was successful.
    # Parse the json response.
    data = response.json()

    # Extract the CSV file URL from the response.
    csv_url = data.get('url', '')
    print("CSV file is available at: ", csv_url)
else:
    # There was an error with the request.
    print("Error: ", response.status_code)

Code samples (XLS to XML)#

import os
import requests  # pip install requests
import json

# The authentication key (API Key).
# Get your own by registering at https://app.pdf.co
API_KEY = "***************************************"

# Base URL for PDF.co Web API requests
BASE_URL = "https://api.pdf.co/v1"

# Direct URL of source xls file.
SourceFileURL = "https://pdfco-test-files.s3.us-west-2.amazonaws.com/other/Input.xls"

def main(args = None):
    convertXlsToXml(SourceFileURL)

def convertXlsToXml(sourceFileUrl):
    """Convert Xls/Xlsx to Xml using PDF.co Web API"""

    # Prepare requests params as JSON
    parameters = {
        "url": sourceFileUrl,
        "async": False
    }

    # Prepare URL for 'Xls to Xml' API request
    url = "{}/xls/convert/to/xml".format(BASE_URL)

    # Execute request and get response as JSON
    response = requests.post(url, headers={ "x-api-key": API_KEY, "Content-Type": "application/json" }, data=json.dumps(parameters))
    if (response.status_code == 200):
        json_res = response.json()

        if json_res["error"] == False:
            # Get URL of result file
            resultFileUrl = json_res["url"]
            # Output URL of converted xml file
            print(f"Result file url: {resultFileUrl}")
        else:
            # Show service reported error
            print(json_res["message"])
    else:
        print(f"Request error: {response.status_code} {response.reason}")

if __name__ == '__main__':
    main()

On Github#

Footnotes

1

Supports publicly accessible links from any source, including Google Drive, Dropbox, and PDF.co Built-In Files Storage. To upload files via the API, check out the File Upload section. Note: If you experience intermittent Access Denied or Too Many Requests errors, please try adding cache: to enable built-in URL caching (e.g., cache:https://example.com/file1.pdf). For data security, you have the option to encrypt output files and decrypt input files. Learn more about user-controlled data encryption.

2

Main response codes as follows:

Code

Description

200

Success

400

Bad request. Typically happens because of bad input parameters, or because the input URLs can’t be reached, possibly due to access restrictions like needing a login or password.

401

Unauthorized

402

Not enough credits

445

Timeout error. To process large documents or files please use asynchronous mode (set the async parameter to true) and then check status using the /job/check endpoint. If a file contains many pages then specify a page range using the pages parameter. The number of pages of the document can be obtained using the /pdf/info endpoint.

Note

For more see the complete list of available response codes.

3

PDF.co Request size: API requests do not support request sizes of more than 4 megabytes in size. Please ensure that request sizes do not exceed this limit.