Convert XLS/XLSX to CSV in Bash

By Güngör Budak

June 27, 2015 - One minute read - 110 words

In most of the modern Linux distributions, Libre Office is available and it can be used to convert XLS or XLSX file(s) to CSV file(s) in bash.

For XLS file(s):

1for i in *.xls; do libreoffice --headless --convert-to csv "$i"; done

For XLSX file(s):

1for i in *.xlsx; do libreoffice --headless --convert-to csv "$i"; done

You may get following warning but it still works fine:

1javaldx: Could not find a Java Runtime Environment!<br />Warning: failed to read path from javaldx

You’ll see a standard output similar to following when the conversion is successful:

1convert /home/gbudak/Downloads/cmap/cmap_instances_02.xls > /home/gbudak/Downloads/cmap/cmap_instances_02.csv using Text - txt - csv (StarCalc)

Questions?

Please start a discussion down below or send me an email!