Download Sample Excel Files (XLSX / XLSM)

Download free sample Excel files. The Office Open XML Spreadsheet format uses a complex structure of “Shared Strings” and XML sheets. Use these files to test formula parsing, date conversion logic, and pivot tables. STANDARD Financial & Data File Name Contents / Specs Size Action financial_sample.xlsx Formatting Test Contains currency formatting ($/€), percentage styling, and…

Download free sample Excel files. The Office Open XML Spreadsheet format uses a complex structure of “Shared Strings” and XML sheets. Use these files to test formula parsing, date conversion logic, and pivot tables.

STANDARD
Financial & Data

File Name Contents / Specs Size Action
financial_sample.xlsx
Formatting Test		 Contains currency formatting ($/€), percentage styling, and conditional formatting rules. 25 KB Download
formulas_and_logic.xlsx
Calculation Test		 Includes SUM, VLOOKUP, and IF statements. Tests if your parser reads the cached value or just the formula string. 15 KB Download
large_data_50k.xlsx
Performance		 50,000 rows of sales data. Use to test the memory usage of libraries like SheetJS or OpenPyXL. 3 MB Download

QA / SECURITY
Macros, Dates & Pivot Tables

Test Case Description Size Action
Macro Enabled (.xlsm) Security Risk. Contains VBA scripts (Macros). Standard .xlsx cannot hold macros. Use to test security filters. 40 KB Download
Date Logic Test Dates stored as Serial Numbers (e.g. 44927) instead of text. Tests if your parser correctly applies the date format mask. 10 KB Download
Pivot Table Cache Contains a Pivot Table. These are complex structures that store a cache of the source data. Often breaks simple parsers. 60 KB Download

Technical Specs: XLSX

  • Shared Strings: To save space, Excel does not store repetitive text in the cell XML. Instead, it stores an index (e.g., “7”) which points to a separate file sharedStrings.xml. Parsers must handle this lookup.
  • Date System: Excel stores dates as the number of days since January 1, 1900. (e.g., 44562.5 = 1 Jan 2022 at Noon).
  • MIME Type: application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why does my parser return “44562” instead of “01/01/2022”?
That is the raw data. Excel handles dates as serial numbers. You need to read the numFmtId (Number Format ID) of the cell to know that this number should be displayed as a Date.
Can I run the Macros on Mac and Windows?
Mostly yes, but VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) has access to the filesystem. A macro writing to `C:\Temp` will fail on a Mac. Always check the VBA code for OS-specific paths.

How to analyze Excel files?

Sometimes you need to see the raw data without the formatting or hidden rows.

  • 7-Zip: An XLSX file is just a ZIP archive. Rename file.xlsx to file.zip and you can extract the XML files to see the internal structure.
  • LibreOffice Calc: The best free alternative to Microsoft Excel. Great for checking ODF compatibility.
  • VS Code (Extensions): Use the “Excel Viewer” extension to preview CSV and XLSX files directly in your code editor.

Developer’s Corner: Pandas

The industry standard for reading Excel files in Python is Pandas (built on top of openpyxl).

# Python: Read Excel into DataFrame
import pandas as pd# Load specific sheet and handle dates automatically
df = pd.read_excel(
‘financial_sample.xlsx’,
sheet_name=‘Sheet1’,
parse_dates=[‘DateColumn’]
)
print(df.head())

Similar Posts