v1.8

Release 1.8 brings the usual bug fixes and internal cleanups as well as a few selected new features.

Most of the work went into our xlsb parser. This has been significantly improved, files that previously could not be imported or were not imported correctly now work. We provide support for "rich" text, hopefully parse array functions much better and even provide support for data validation. There are still many things untouched (like pivot tables and conditional formatting), but loading files should work better than ever. Our previous statement remains, we only offer this as an option for our users, and the recommendation remains, if you want to make sure the file has been imported correctly, use spreadsheet software to convert the file.

We have started to deprecate some features that were used in openxlsx and were useful in early stages of openxlsx2, but are now long since replaced by our own functions or are now internalized and should not be used by users directly. Users should see a warning and a note on what to do. If in doubt, please open a discussion. Everybodys darling wb_dims() can now handle multiple column selections and we've fixed a nasty bug that slowed down writing files with non-consecutive numeric formats (like dates in columns A and C).

A lot of time was spent on various bug fixes, cleanups, and minor improvements here and there. A number of the fixes and features were developed based on user requests and needs. If you find a bug, please let us know!

The 1.8 release is the 20th openxlsx2 release available on CRAN. Even though the package is now semi-stable, it is always a good idea to make regular backups and check the output files. A look at the issue tracker and the NEWs is highly recommended.

What's Changed

• [xlsb] fix choose by @JanMarvin in #1037
• [misc] avoid cryptic error on blank inline string. fixes #1038 by @JanMarvin in #1039
• [xlsb] fix maybe used uninitialized warning by @JanMarvin in #1040
• [xlsb] fix more array fmls by @JanMarvin in #1042
• [dims] extend wb_dims() to accept multiple columns by @JanMarvin in #1019
• [xlsb] enable rich txt by @JanMarvin in #1044
• [styles] improve/fix style detection. fixes #1045 by @JanMarvin in #1046
• [dims] fix unhandled condtion by @JanMarvin in #1047
• [load] fix loading table slicers by @JanMarvin in #1048
• [xlsb] read PtgMemErr by @JanMarvin in #1049
• [xlsb] parse some table formulas by @JanMarvin in #1052
• [read] add check_names argument. closes #1050 by @JanMarvin in #1051
• [cf] add x14 icon sets as discussed in #1053 by @JanMarvin in #1055
• [write] allow sheet as sheet name in write_xlsx(). closes #1056 by @JanMarvin in #1057
• [xlsb] add data validations by @JanMarvin in #1054
• Unrelated lints to tests by @olivroy in #1063
• Deprecate old functions write_*() and remove_*() by @olivroy in #1064
• [load] fix
  fixing in vml files. closes #1061 by @JanMarvin in #1062
• Update .covrignore by @olivroy in #1065
• [dims] speed up non consecutive dims. fixes #1066 by @JanMarvin in #1067
• [dims] code cleanup by @JanMarvin in #1068
• [write] table column names have to be characters by @JanMarvin in #1071
• Release 1.8 by @JanMarvin in #1069

Full Changelog: v1.7...v1.8