excel-data-types-explorer

page_type	urlFragment	products	languages	extensions	description
sample	office-excel-add-in-data-types-explorer	office office-excel	javascript	contentType technologies createdDate samples Add-ins 09/07/2022 4:00:00 PM	Create data types in Excel workbooks and explore existing data types in Excel workbooks.

Create and explore data types in Excel

Summary

This sample builds an Excel add-in that can create and explore data types in your workbooks. Data types enable add-in developers to organize complex data structures as objects, such as formatted number values, web images, and entities. See Overview of data types in Excel add-ins to learn more about data types.

Features

This sample builds and then sideloads a data types explorer add-in that allows you to create and edit data types in an Excel workbook. Once the add-in is sideloaded, you can use it to explore entity, web image, formatted number, string, double, and boolean data types.

In particular, this add-in contains an entity data type builder that you can use to create and explore entity cards. Entity cards extend the potential of Excel add-ins beyond a 2-dimensional grid. To learn more about entity cards, see Use cards with entity value data types.

Applies to

• Excel on Windows
• Excel on Mac
• Excel on the web

Prerequisites

• Excel on Windows with a minimum build of 16.0.14626.10000, or Excel on Mac with a minimum build of 16.55.21102600, or Excel on the web.
• Node.js version 16 or greater.
• npm version 8 or greater.

Solution

Solution	Author(s)
Create and explore data types in Excel workbooks	Microsoft

Version history

Version	Date	Comments
1.0	9-7-2022	Initial release
1.1	10-12-2022	Promote from Preview to GA

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Run the sample

Take the following steps to run this sample and set up the data types explorer add-in.

1. Clone or download this repo.
2. Go to the Samples/excel-data-types-explorer folder via the command line.
3. Run npm install to set up the add-in dependencies.
4. Run npm start. This command opens Excel, sideloads the add-in in Excel, and opens the task pane. If the task pane doesn't open automatically, select Show Taskpane in the Excel ribbon.
5. Follow the directions in the task pane to build and explore data types.

Note: To sideload this add-in sample in Excel on the web, see Sideload Office Add-ins to Office on the web.

See also

An unmaintained version of this data types explorer tool is also available as an Excel Script Lab sample. To learn more about Script Lab, see Explore Office JavaScript API using Script Lab.

Questions and feedback

• Did you experience any problems with the sample? Create an issue and we'll help you out.
• We'd love to get your feedback about this sample. Go to our Office samples survey to give feedback and suggest improvements.
• For general questions about developing Office Add-ins, go to Microsoft Q&A using the office-js-dev tag.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2022 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information, see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.