excel_plus #

A fast, memory-efficient Dart & Flutter library for reading, creating, editing, and saving Excel (.xlsx) files. Drop-in replacement for the excel package with significantly better performance on large workbooks.

Why excel_plus? #

The original excel package works well for small files but struggles with large workbooks on mobile devices. excel_plus is a performance-optimized fork that keeps the same API while delivering:

• 7x faster file open times on large workbooks
• 4x lower peak memory usage
• Lazy sheet loading — only parses sheets you access
• SAX-based streaming — avoids building full DOM trees for cell data
• Zero API changes — switch your import and you're done

Performance Comparison — Android Emulator (API 36) #

Tested on Android emulator (x86_64), same device, same test data:

The bigger the workbook, the bigger the improvement. On a 5M cell benchmark: 6.2s vs 46.3s open time, 2.7GB vs 11.5GB peak memory.

Features #

• Read and write .xlsx files from bytes or streams
• Create new Excel workbooks from scratch
• Multiple sheets — create, copy, rename, delete, reorder
• Cell value types: TextCellValue, IntCellValue, DoubleCellValue, BoolCellValue, DateCellValue, TimeCellValue, DateTimeCellValue, FormulaCellValue
• Rich cell styling: fonts, colors, borders, alignment, rotation, number formats
• Merge and unmerge cells
• Insert, remove, and clear rows and columns
• Custom column widths and row heights with auto-fit
• Header and footer support
• Right-to-left (RTL) sheet support
• Find and replace across sheets
• Range selection and value extraction
• Works on all Dart platforms: VM, Web, mobile (Android & iOS)
• 100% API compatible with the excel package

Getting Started #

Install #

dependencies:
  excel_plus: ^0.0.1

dart pub get

Migrating from excel #

Just change your import:

// Before
import 'package:excel/excel.dart';

// After
import 'package:excel_plus/excel_plus.dart';

No other code changes needed. All classes, methods, and enums are identical.

Usage #

Read an Excel File #

import 'dart:io';
import 'package:excel_plus/excel_plus.dart';

var file = File('path/to/file.xlsx');
var bytes = file.readAsBytesSync();
var excel = Excel.decodeBytes(bytes);

for (var table in excel.tables.keys) {
  print('Sheet: $table');
  for (var row in excel[table].rows) {
    print(row.map((cell) => cell?.value).toList());
  }
}

Create a New Workbook #

var excel = Excel.createExcel();
var sheet = excel['Sheet1'];

sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A1'), TextCellValue('Name'));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('B1'), TextCellValue('Age'));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A2'), TextCellValue('Alice'));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('B2'), IntCellValue(30));

var bytes = excel.save();
File('output.xlsx').writeAsBytesSync(bytes!);

Cell Styling #

sheet.updateCell(
  CellIndex.indexByString('A1'),
  TextCellValue('Bold Red Header'),
  cellStyle: CellStyle(
    bold: true,
    fontSize: 14,
    fontColorHex: ExcelColor.fromHexString('#FF0000'),
    backgroundColorHex: ExcelColor.fromHexString('#FFFF00'),
    horizontalAlign: HorizontalAlign.Center,
    leftBorder: Border(borderStyle: BorderStyle.Thin),
    rightBorder: Border(borderStyle: BorderStyle.Thin),
    topBorder: Border(borderStyle: BorderStyle.Thin),
    bottomBorder: Border(borderStyle: BorderStyle.Thin),
  ),
);

Merge Cells #

sheet.merge(
  CellIndex.indexByString('A1'),
  CellIndex.indexByString('D1'),
  customValue: TextCellValue('Merged Header'),
);

Row and Column Operations #

sheet.insertRow(2);           // Insert empty row at index 2
sheet.removeRow(5);           // Remove row at index 5
sheet.insertColumn(1);        // Insert empty column at index 1
sheet.removeColumn(3);        // Remove column at index 3
sheet.appendRow([TextCellValue('a'), IntCellValue(1)]);
sheet.setColumnWidth(0, 25.0);
sheet.setRowHeight(0, 40.0);

Multiple Sheets #

var excel = Excel.createExcel();
excel['Sales'].updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A1'), TextCellValue('Revenue'));
excel['Inventory'].updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A1'), TextCellValue('Stock'));

excel.rename('Sales', 'Revenue');
excel.copy('Revenue', 'Revenue Backup');
excel.delete('Inventory');
excel.setDefaultSheet('Revenue');

All Cell Value Types #

sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A1'), TextCellValue('Hello'));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A2'), IntCellValue(42));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A3'), DoubleCellValue(3.14));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A4'), BoolCellValue(true));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A5'), DateCellValue(year: 2026, month: 4, day: 14));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A6'), TimeCellValue(hour: 14, minute: 30, second: 0));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A7'), DateTimeCellValue(year: 2026, month: 4, day: 14, hour: 14, minute: 30));
sheet.updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A8'), FormulaCellValue('SUM(A2:A3)'));

Flutter — Read from Assets and Save #

import 'package:flutter/services.dart';
import 'package:path_provider/path_provider.dart';

// Read
final data = await rootBundle.load('assets/template.xlsx');
var excel = Excel.decodeBytes(data.buffer.asUint8List());

// Modify
excel['Sheet1'].updateCell(CellIndex.indexByString('A1'), TextCellValue('Updated'));

// Save
final dir = await getApplicationDocumentsDirectory();
File('${dir.path}/output.xlsx').writeAsBytesSync(excel.save()!);

Architecture #

lib/src/
  core/       → Excel class, configuration constants
  models/     → CellValue, CellStyle, CellIndex, enums, colors, borders
  sheet/      → Sheet class with row/column and merge mixins
  reader/     → SAX-based .xlsx parser with lazy sheet loading
  writer/     → .xlsx encoder with span correction
  utils/      → Archive, cell coordinate, and color utilities
  platform/   → Conditional imports for web vs native save

License #

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

Credits #

Based on the excellent excel package by Kawal Jeet. excel_plus is a performance-optimized fork focused on mobile and large-file workloads.