ODS to JSONOpenDocument (ODS)

LibreOffice & OpenOffice spreadsheets.

ISO-standardized spreadsheet format used by LibreOffice, OpenOffice, and Google Sheets exports. TabularJS reads the XML content directly.

An .ods file is a ZIP archive whose content.xml holds every sheet as <table:table>, <table:table-row> and <table:table-cell> elements. It is the native format of LibreOffice Calc and OpenOffice, and Google Sheets can download a spreadsheet as .ods.

TabularJS unzips the file, reads the cells and their value types, and returns the same worksheets structure it uses for Excel files. Formulas are rewritten from OpenDocument syntax (of:=SUM([.B2:.B3])) to the familiar =SUM(B2:B3).

Feature support

What TabularJS extracts from ODS files

• Every sheet with its name in worksheetName. Hidden sheets are included with worksheetState: 'hidden'.
• Values by office:value-type: floats, percentages and currency as numbers, booleans as true/false, dates as ISO strings such as 2026-10-01, times as ISO durations, text as strings.
• Formulas as text with =: the of: prefix is removed, [.B2] cell references become B2, and ; argument separators become ,.
• Styles converted to CSS, stored once in result.style and referenced by index from worksheet.style.
• Merged cells (number-columns-spanned, number-rows-spanned) in mergeCells, column widths in columns, number formats in cells[...].format.
• Repeated rows and columns (the way ODS stores empty or identical cells) are expanded into the grid.

Convert ODS to JSON in Node.js

import tabularjs from 'tabularjs';

const result = await tabularjs('budget.ods');
const budget = result.worksheets.find((w) => w.worksheetName === 'Budget');

console.log(budget.data);
// [ [ 'Item', 'Cost', 'Paid on' ],
//   [ 'Hosting', 120, '2026-10-01' ],
//   [ 'Domain', 15, '2026-10-05' ],
//   [ 'Total', '=SUM(B2:B3)', '' ],
//   [ 'Prices include VAT', '', '' ] ]
console.log(budget.mergeCells); // { A5: [ 3, 1 ] }

Read ODS files in the browser

import tabularjs from 'tabularjs';

// Fetch an .ods file and parse it as a Blob
const response = await fetch('/files/budget.ods');
const blob = await response.blob();

// A Blob has no file name, so the format is detected from the content
const result = await tabularjs(blob);
console.log(result.worksheets.map((w) => w.worksheetName)); // [ 'Budget', 'Notes' ]

JSON output

{
  "worksheets": [
    {
      "worksheetName": "Budget",
      "data": [
        ["Item", "Cost", "Paid on"],
        ["Hosting", 120, "2026-10-01"],
        ["Domain", 15, "2026-10-05"],
        ["Total", "=SUM(B2:B3)", ""],
        ["Prices include VAT", "", ""]
      ],
      "columns": [{ "width": 100, "title": "A", "type": "text" }],
      "rows": {},
      "cells": {},
      "style": {},
      "mergeCells": { "A5": [3, 1] },
      "minDimensions": [3, 5],
      "freezeRows": 0,
      "freezeColumns": 0
    },
    { "worksheetName": "Notes", "data": [["Updated monthly"]] }
  ]
}

Trimmed output: only the first column definition is shown and the Notes sheet is shortened. This test file has no styles; a file saved by LibreOffice also has result.style with the CSS of each style, referenced by index from worksheet.style.

Limitations

• Formulas are not calculated, and a formula cell holds the formula text instead of the value LibreOffice saved.
• Dates are returned as ISO strings, not Date objects.
• Flat XML OpenDocument files (.fods) and password-protected .ods files are not supported.

Frequently asked questions

Why TabularJS for OpenDocument (ODS)?

• No external spreadsheet parser dependencies: faster installs, smaller bundles.
• One API in Node.js and modern browsers.
• Output is shape-compatible withJspreadsheet: render parsed data in a live workbook with one call.