# Julia for Excel users
**URL:** https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-excel-users/135599
**Category:** New to Julia
**Tags:** excel
**Created:** [February 12, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-excel-users/135599 "2026-02-12T16:18:17Z")
**Posts on this page:** 5
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@technocrat](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/technocrat)
#### Post date: [February 12, 2026, 4:18pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-excel-users/135599/1 "2026-02-12T16:18:17Z")
Use your own spreadsheet instead of the demo, and if you do, the fake data will be bypassed
```julia-auto
# ==============================================================================
# Julia Starter Template for Excel Users
# Mission: Load a XLSX, clean it, and run a "Pivot Table" summary.
# script and spreadsheet
==============================================================================
using CSV
using DataFrames
using Statistics
using XLSX
# 1. LOAD DATA
# In Excel: File > Open
# In Julia: We read the file into a 'DataFrame' (think of it as a virtual sheet)
file_path = "sales.xlsx"
# Note: Check if file exists before loading
if isfile(file_path)
df = DataFrame(XLSX.readtable(file_path, 1))
println("Successfully loaded $(nrow(df)) rows.")
else
# Create dummy data for testing if no file is present
df = DataFrame(
Region = ["East", "West", "East", "North", "West"],
Sales = [1200.50, 850.00, 2100.00, 400.25, 1500.75],
Category = ["Tech", "Office", "Tech", "Furniture", "Office"]
)
println("Using sample data for demonstration...")
end
# 2. THE "CALCULATED COLUMN"
# adjust to your vareiable names
# In Excel: =B2 * 0.08 (Tax Calculation)
# In Julia: Use the '.' for element-wise math (applying to every row at once)
df.Tax = df.Sales .* 0.08
# 3. FILTERING
# In Excel: Data > Filter > "Tech"
# In Julia: Create a subset
tech_sales = subset(df, :Category => x -> x .== "Tech")
# 4. THE "PIVOT TABLE"
# In Excel: Insert > Pivot Table (Rows: Region, Values: Sum of Sales)
# In Julia: GroupBy and Combine
pivot_summary = combine(groupby(df, :Region),
:Sales => sum => :Total_Sales,
:Sales => mean => :Average_Ticket
)
# 5. EXPORT
# In Excel: File > Save As
CSV.write("julia_report_output.csv", pivot_summary)
println("--- Summary Report ---")
show(pivot_summary)
```
which will output the program and result
````julia-auto
Julia> # ==============================================================================
# Julia Starter Template for Excel Users
# Mission: Load a CSV, clean it, and run a "Pivot Table" summary.
# ==============================================================================
using CSV
julia> using DataFrames
julia> using Statistics
julia> using XLSX
julia> # 1. LOAD DATA
# In Excel: File > Open
# In Julia: We read the file into a 'DataFrame' (think of it as a virtual sheet)
file_path = "sales.xlsx"
"sales.xlsx"
julia> # Note: Check if file exists before loading
if isfile(file_path)
df = DataFrame(XLSX.readtable(file_path, 1))
println("Successfully loaded $(nrow(df)) rows.")
else
# Create dummy data for testing if no file is present
df = DataFrame(
Region = ["East", "West", "East", "North", "West"],
Sales = [1200.50, 850.00, 2100.00, 400.25, 1500.75],
Category = ["Tech", "Office", "Tech", "Furniture", "Office"]
)
println("Using sample data for demonstration...")
end
Successfully loaded 5 rows.
julia> # 2. THE "CALCULATED COLUMN"
# adjust to your vareiable names
# In Excel: =B2 * 0.08 (Tax Calculation)
# In Julia: Use the '.' for element-wise math (applying to every row at once)
df.Tax = df.Sales .* 0.08
5-element Vector{Float64}:
100.0
68.0
168.0
32.02
120.06
julia> # 3. FILTERING
# In Excel: Data > Filter > "Tech"
# In Julia: Create a subset
tech_sales = subset(df, :Category => x -> x .== "Tech")
2×4 DataFrame
Row │ Region Sales Category Tax
│ Any Any Any Float64
─────┼──────────────────────────────────
1 │ East 1250 Tech 100.0
2 │ East 2100 Tech 168.0
julia> # 4. THE "PIVOT TABLE"
# In Excel: Insert > Pivot Table (Rows: Region, Values: Sum of Sales)
# In Julia: GroupBy and Combine
pivot_summary = combine(groupby(df, :Region),
:Sales => sum => :Total_Sales,
:Sales => mean => :Average_Ticket
)
3×3 DataFrame
Row │ Region Total_Sales Average_Ticket
│ Any Float64 Float64
─────┼─────────────────────────────────────
1 │ East 3350.0 1675.0
2 │ West 2350.75 1175.38
3 │ North 400.25 400.25
julia> # 5. EXPORT
# In Excel: File > Save As
CSV.write("julia_report_output.csv", pivot_summary)
"julia_report_output.csv"
julia> println("--- Summary Report ---")
--- Summary Report ---
julia> show(pivot_summary)
3×3 DataFrame
Row │ Region Total_Sales Average_Ticket
│ Any Float64 Float64
─────┼─────────────────────────────────────
1 │ East 3350.0 1675.0
2 │ West 2350.75 1175.38
3 │ North 400.25 400.25
julia> ```
(Thanks to @vzion for pointing out errors in the original.)
````
---
### Author:  [@vzion](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/vzion)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2026, 9:57am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-excel-users/135599/2 "2026-02-13T09:57:39Z")
Nice, but you should update your template as it doesn’t contain the same code as in the output and doesn’t work as is (you don’t load the CSV package you are using at the end and you try to load a csv file with the XLSX package…).
And for Excel users, I tend to show them the DataFramesMeta package syntax first, like in the pumas.ai [DataFrame tutorial](https://tutorials.pumas.ai/html/DataWranglingInJulia/05-mutating-dfmeta.html), with a pinch of @chain @rsubset @rtransform and @by macros. I think it makes the code less intimidating than the vanillia DataFrames syntax. 😅
---
### Author:  [@TimG](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/TimG)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2026, 11:07am UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-excel-users/135599/3 "2026-02-13T11:07:24Z")
The pumas.ai tutorial (which I hadn’t seen before now) is a little out of date with respect to reading and writing Excel files using XLSX.jl. It seems still to use the pre v0.8 style. The current version of XLSX.jl is 0.10.4.
There was [a query here recently](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/xlsx-package/135513) that seems to have been (mis)informed by this.
---
### Author:  [@vzion](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/vzion)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2026, 2:39pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-excel-users/135599/4 "2026-02-13T14:39:40Z")
About the XLSX package, I really hope you’ll be added as a main contributor to the package soon, @TimG. All your work there deserves to be merge in a new release as it adds many formating features we’re waiting for a few years now !
And I guess a fork to a new XLSX2 package would be a bit sad… ☹
---
### Author:  [@technocrat](https://discourse.julialang.org/u/technocrat)
#### Post date: [February 13, 2026, 5:23pm UTC](https://discourse.julialang.org/t/julia-for-excel-users/135599/5 "2026-02-13T17:23:30Z")
Thanks for the catch @vzion. That’ll learn me always to do this in Pluto in a fresh environment.