Convert XLS to CSV on command line

Question

How could I convert an XLS file to a CSV file on the windows command line.

The machine has Microsoft Office 2000 installed. I'm open to installing OpenOffice if it's not possible using Microsoft Office.

Answer 1

Open Notepad, create a file called XlsToCsv.vbs and paste this in:

if WScript.Arguments.Count < 2 Then     WScript.Echo "Error! Please specify the source path and the destination. Usage: XlsToCsv SourcePath.xls Destination.csv"     Wscript.Quit End If Dim oExcel Set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application") Dim oBook Set oBook = oExcel.Workbooks.Open(Wscript.Arguments.Item(0)) oBook.SaveAs WScript.Arguments.Item(1), 6 oBook.Close False oExcel.Quit WScript.Echo "Done" 

Then from a command line, go to the folder you saved the .vbs file in and run:

XlsToCsv.vbs [sourcexlsFile].xls [destinationcsvfile].csv 

This requires Excel to be installed on the machine you are on though.

Answer 2

A slightly modified version of ScottF answer, which does not require absolute file paths:

if WScript.Arguments.Count < 2 Then     WScript.Echo "Please specify the source and the destination files. Usage: ExcelToCsv <xls/xlsx source file> <csv destination file>"     Wscript.Quit End If  csv_format = 6  Set objFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")  src_file = objFSO.GetAbsolutePathName(Wscript.Arguments.Item(0)) dest_file = objFSO.GetAbsolutePathName(WScript.Arguments.Item(1))  Dim oExcel Set oExcel = CreateObject("Excel.Application")  Dim oBook Set oBook = oExcel.Workbooks.Open(src_file)  oBook.SaveAs dest_file, csv_format  oBook.Close False oExcel.Quit 

I have renamed the script ExcelToCsv, since this script is not limited to xls at all. xlsx Works just fine, as we could expect.

Tested with Office 2010.