How to read/convert Excel XML files to R/CSV?

Question

I have few hundred XML files. They are probably generated from/to Excel. I would like to read it to R or convert to CSV. Headers of all files look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?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">
<DocumentProperties xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office">

I can always write parser, but would like to avoid doing it. I don't have Excel

Answer 1

There is a chapter in the "R Data Import/Export" manual (one of the free manuals that installs with R) on reading data from Excel spreadsheets. If the above XML file is a saved spreadsheet from recent versions of Excel then some of those tools should read them easily. I would probably start with either the RODBC package or the XLConnect package.

If those don't work then the XML package should at least make writing the parser much easier.