# REXML and Excel XML :)

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-excel-xml/96317>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [June 28, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-excel-xml/96317 "2006-06-28T03:06:38Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/esquilax)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 3:06am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-excel-xml/96317/1 "2006-06-28T03:06:38Z")

</div>

I set myself the task of being able to parse a random xml file generated  
by Excel 2003 and I’m having odd problems which I can’t really  
understand.

---- Question Setup ----  
Excel defines two element each with their own namespace. I’ll paste the  
XML file at the bottom of this message.

\*\* notice the top two elements: and

When those two elements with their namespaces atrributes are present, I  
can’t access any of the lower elements like or ,  
When I manually delete the namespace attributes, everything works fine.  
In other words:

@doc.root.elements.each(‘Worksheet’) {} retruns three elements when I  
remove the namespace attribute, but nothing when I put it back in.

---- Actual Question —  
Is this just a weird instance of XML which REXML doesn’t support or do I  
need to be doing some fancy XPath footwork to make it work?

cheers and thanks! 🙂

Andrew

----- Sample Excel file -----

\<?xml version="1.0"?\> \<?mso-application progid="Excel.Sheet"?\>

\<Workbook xmlns=“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet”

xmlns:o=“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office”

xmlns:x=“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:excel”

xmlns:ss=“urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet”

xmlns:html=“[http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40](http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40)”\>

Gibson, Andrew

agibson

2006-06-26T12:48:00Z

2006-06-26T12:50:55Z

11.6360

8835

15180

120

105

False

False

 \<Table ss:ExpandedColumnCount="3" ss:ExpandedRowCount="17" x:FullColumns="1"

x:FullRows=“1”\>

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Column1</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Column2</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="String">Column3</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">1</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">2</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">3</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">4</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">5</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">6</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">7</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">8</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">9</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">10</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">11</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">12</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">13</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">14</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">15</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">16</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">17</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">18</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">19</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">20</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">21</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">22</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">23</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">24</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">25</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">26</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">27</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">28</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">29</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">30</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">31</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">32</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">33</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">34</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">35</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">36</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">37</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">38</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">39</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">40</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">41</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">42</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">43</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">44</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">45</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">46</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">47</Data></Cell>

<Cell><Data ss:Type="Number">48</Data></Cell>

```

```
<Pane>

 <Number>3</Number>

 <ActiveRow>17</ActiveRow>

 <ActiveCol>4</ActiveCol>

</Pane>

```

False

False

False

False

False

False

* * *

---

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**Author:** ![esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/esquilax)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 5:19pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-excel-xml/96317/2 "2006-06-28T17:19:35Z")

</div>

Hi,

On Jun 27, 2006, at 9:06 PM, Andrew G. wrote:

> \*\* notice the top two elements: and  
> remove the namespace attribute, but nothing when I put it back in.
> 
> ---- Actual Question —  
> Is this just a weird instance of XML which REXML doesn’t support or  
> do I  
> need to be doing some fancy XPath footwork to make it work?

XPath footwork. Write:

@doc.root.elements.each(‘ss:Worksheet’) {}

The prefix ‘ss’ is defined and equal to the default namespace of the  
Worksheet element.

Cheers,  
Bob

> cheers and thanks! 🙂
> 
> Andrew

* * *

Bob H. – blogs at \<[http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/)  
hutch/\>  
Recursive Design Inc. – [http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/)  
Raconteur – [http://www.raconteur.info/](http://www.raconteur.info/)  
xampl for Ruby – [http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/)

---

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**Author:** ![esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/esquilax)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 5:28pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-excel-xml/96317/3 "2006-06-28T17:28:23Z")

</div>

BAM! 🙂 thanks, I never noticed that. Is that an XML standard thing? if  
you have a default namespace, you define it twice? once with no prefix  
and again with the prefix you’ll need to access it?

Bob H. wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> On Jun 27, 2006, at 9:06 PM, Andrew G. wrote:
> 
> > \*\* notice the top two elements: and  
> > remove the namespace attribute, but nothing when I put it back in.
> > 
> > ---- Actual Question —  
> > Is this just a weird instance of XML which REXML doesn’t support or  
> > do I  
> > need to be doing some fancy XPath footwork to make it work?
> 
> XPath footwork. Write:
> 
> @doc.root.elements.each(‘ss:Worksheet’) {}
> 
> The prefix ‘ss’ is defined and equal to the default namespace of the  
> Worksheet element.
> 
> Cheers,  
> Bob
> 
> > cheers and thanks! 🙂
> > 
> > Andrew
> 
> * * *
> 
> Bob H. – blogs at \<[http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/)  
> hutch/\>  
> Recursive Design Inc. – [http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/)  
> Raconteur – [http://www.raconteur.info/](http://www.raconteur.info/)  
> xampl for Ruby – [http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/)

---

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**Author:** ![esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/esquilax)\
**Post date:** [June 28, 2006, 7:25pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-excel-xml/96317/4 "2006-06-28T19:25:04Z")

</div>

Hi,

[Sorry if this is a duplicate, something appears to have gone wrong  
the first time I posted]

On Jun 27, 2006, at 9:06 PM, Andrew G. wrote:

> \*\* notice the top two elements: and  
> remove the namespace attribute, but nothing when I put it back in.
> 
> ---- Actual Question —  
> Is this just a weird instance of XML which REXML doesn’t support or  
> do I  
> need to be doing some fancy XPath footwork to make it work?

XPath footwork. Write:

@doc.root.elements.each(‘ss:Worksheet’) {}

The prefix ‘ss’ is defined and equal to the default namespace of the  
Worksheet element.

Cheers,  
Bob

> cheers and thanks! 🙂
> 
> Andrew

* * *

Bob H. – blogs at \<[http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/)  
hutch/\>  
Recursive Design Inc. – [http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/)  
Raconteur – [http://www.raconteur.info/](http://www.raconteur.info/)  
xampl for Ruby – [http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/)

---

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**Author:** ![esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/e/e0b2c6/32.png) [@esquilax](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/esquilax)\
**Post date:** [June 30, 2006, 2:12pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/rexml-and-excel-xml/96317/5 "2006-06-30T14:12:31Z")

</div>

On Jun 28, 2006, at 1:16 PM, Andrew G. wrote:

> BAM! 🙂 thanks, I never noticed that. Is that an XML standard  
> thing? if  
> you have a default namespace, you define it twice? once with no prefix  
> and again with the prefix you’ll need to access it?

It is definitely not required by XML to do this. Though I never  
thought much about it before I saw your example. Let’s assume that  
XPath as implemented in both REXML and the Ruby libxml wrapper are  
not broken in the same way, then you do need the prefix defined when  
using XPath (unless there is some other way), and so I’d think an  
apparently redundant ns definition would be a fairly common thing to  
do since it isn’t really redundant. But I’m not an XPath expert  
(don’t really use it at all actually).

Cheers,  
Bob

> > > 
> > 
> > ## Worksheet element.

* * *

Bob H. – blogs at \<[http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/)  
hutch/\>  
Recursive Design Inc. – [http://www.recursive.ca/](http://www.recursive.ca/)  
Raconteur – [http://www.raconteur.info/](http://www.raconteur.info/)  
xampl for Ruby – [http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/xampl/)