[Date Index] [Thread Index] [Author Index]

Re: Excel XLS Import slowdown in version 8

• To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
• Subject: [mg116198] Re: Excel XLS Import slowdown in version 8
• From: Albert Retey <awnl at gmx-topmail.de>
• Date: Fri, 4 Feb 2011 06:58:09 -0500 (EST)
• References: <iig75v$rkm$1@smc.vnet.net>

Hi,
> I have noticed in Mathematica version 8 that Excel (.xls, not the new
> format) importing is about 3.5 times slower than in version 7. I
> noticed this because I have a script that reads two sheets from many
> Excel files that used to take 1.5 seconds per file that now takes
> around 5.18 seconds per file (AbsoluteTiming). Nothing else is done in
> that part of the script; it is just a map of an Import command over a
> list of Excel files. Is anyone else experiencing this slowdown? What
> is the cause? Are there any remedies?

We have also noticed that the Import of xls-files can be much slower in
Version 8 than it was in Version 7. Especially if there are plots within
those files, the import in 8 can be horrible slow, in some cases Import
becomes completely useless. It looks like it has to do something with
the plots, but so far I have not found a way to avoid that, e.g. by just
importing the "Data" element. What has helped in most cases is to delete
all plots in the xls-files before importing, but of course that is just
a workaround and might not be a solution if you have many files, as
seems the case for you...

I would be very interested to hear if anyone has found ways to improve
the import speed of xls-files in version 8 or switch back to the version
7 behaviour...

hth,

albert