openxlsx 4.2.8.1

January 27, 2026 · View on GitHub

Note: openxlsx is no longer under active development. The package is maintained, and CRAN warnings will be fixed, but non-critical issues will not be addressed unless accompanied by a pull request. Packages that depend on openxlsx do not need to take any action, but for new developments, users are encouraged to use alternatives like readxl, writexl, or openxlsx2. The first two packages provide support for reading and writing .xlsx files. The latter package is a modern reinterpretation of openxlsx and provides similar functions to modify worksheets. However, it is not a drop-in replacement, so you may want to consult resources like the update vignette.

openxlsx 4.2.8.1

Fix for upcoming testthat release (@hadley, #530)

openxlsx 4.2.8

Fix the docs for setLastModifiedBy() and getCreators() (@PBfordev, #505)
Fix an integer overflow in setRowHeights()
Fix a coercion warning in get_worksheet_entries() (@philaris, #512)
Fix a bug in deleteDataColumn() (@DavZim, #515)

openxlsx 4.2.7.1

It's now possible to insert a hyperlink image by passing a URL, relative or absolute file path, or mailto string to the new address parameter of insertImage().

openxlsx 4.2.7

Fixed warning on dataValidation(..., type = "list") (#342)
Added optional argument to loadWorkbook to decide if empty/blank cells should be converted to NA_character_ (the default) or left blank as is
saveWorkbook() now succeeds when called after the user has set column widths for a range of columns (e.g. 1:2), saved the workbook, then set column widths for a new range that is inclusive of the previous one (e.g. 1:5) (#493).

Improvements

Improve detectDates (#288)
Preserve window size and position, also getWindowSize() and setWindowSize() (466)

openxlsx 4.2.6

Fix external links (#410)
Do not add unnecessary sheetPr node (#409)
Add support for namedRegions having dots and other special characters (#338).
Add type blanks and not blanks to conditional formatting (#311)

openxlsx 4.2.5

Fixes

openxlsx_setOp() now works with named list (#215)
loadWorkbook() imports inlineStr. Values remain inlineStr when writing the workbook with saveWorkbook(). Similar read.xlsx and readWorkbook import inlineStr.
read.xlsx() no longer changes random seed (#183)
fixed a regression that caused fonts to be read in incorrectly (#207)
add option to save as read only recommended (#201)
fixed writing hyperlink formulas (#200)
write.xlsx() now throws an error if it doesn't have write permissions (#190)
write.xlsx() now again uses the default of overwrite = TRUE for saving files (#249)
as.character.formula() exported to warn about potential conflicts with other packages (#312, #315)

Improvements

options() are more consistently set in functions (see: #289)
Workbook$show() no longer fails when called in a 0 sheet workbook(#240)
read.xlsx() again accepts .xlsm files (#205, #209)
makeHyperlinkString() does no longer require a sheet argument (#57, #58)
improvements in how openxlsx creates temporary directories (see #262)
writeData() calls force(x) to evaluate the object before options are set (#264)
createComment() now correctly handles integers in width and height (#275)
setStyles() accepts halign="justify" (#305)

openxlsx 4.2.4

Fixes

write.xlsx() now successfully passes withFilter (#151)
code clean up PR #168
removal of unused variables PR #168

New features

adds buildWorkbook() to generate a Workbook object from a (named) list or a data.frame (#192, #187)
- this is now recommended rather than the write.xlsx(x, file) ; wb <- read.xlsx(file) functionality before
- write.xlsx() is now a wrapper for wb <- buildWorkbook(x); saveWorkbook(x, file)
- parameter checking from write.xlsx() >> buildWorkbook() are now held off until passed to writeData(), writeDataTable(), etc
- row.names is now deprecated for writeData() and writeDataTable(); please use rowNames instead
read.xlsx() now checks for the file extension .xlsx; previously it would throw an error when the file was .xls or .xlm files
memory allocation improvements
global options added for minWidth and maxWidth
write.xlsx() >> buildWorkbook() can now handle colWidths passed as either a single element or a list()
Added ability to change positioning of summary columns and rows.
- These can be set with the summaryCol and summaryRow arguments in pageSetup().
activeSheet allows to set and get the active (displayed) sheet of a workbook.
Adds new global options for workbook formatting (#165; see ?op.openxlsx)