Write a Simple Go Application to work with Excel Data on Linux

Go is an open source programming language that enables you to easily build software on Linux/UNIX machines. When Go is paired with the ODBC Driver for Excel and unixODBC you are able write applications with connectivity to live Excel data. This article will walk you through the process of installing the ODBC Driver for Excel, configuring a connection using the unixODBC Driver Manager, and creating a simple Go application to work with Excel data.

Using the CData ODBC Drivers on a Unix/Linux Machine

The CData ODBC Drivers are supported in various Red Hat-based and Debian-based systems, including Ubuntu, Debian, RHEL, CentOS, and Fedora. There are also several libraries and packages that are required, many of which may be installed by default, depending on your system. For more information on the supported versions of Linux operating systems and the required libraries, please refer to the "Getting Started" section in help documentation (installed and found online).

Installing the Driver Manager

Before installing the driver, you need to be sure that your system has a driver manager. For this article, you will use unixODBC, a free and open source ODBC driver manager that is widely supported.

For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, you can install unixODBC with the APT package manager:

apt-get install unixodbc unixodbc-dev

For systems based on Red Hat Linux, you can install unixODBC with yum or dnf:

yum install unixODBC unixODBC-devel

The unixODBC driver manager reads information about drivers from an odbcinst.ini file and about data sources from an odbc.ini file. You can determine the location of the configuration files on your system by entering the following command into a terminal:

odbcinst -j

NOTE: You may need to install odbcinst. Use the following command in a terminal:

apt install odbcinst

The output of the command will display the locations of the configuration files for ODBC data sources and registered ODBC drivers. User data sources can only be accessed by the user account whose home folder the odbc.ini is located in. System data sources can be accessed by all users. Below is an example of the output of this command:

DRIVERS............: /etc/odbcinst.ini
SYSTEM DATA SOURCES: /etc/odbc.ini
FILE DATA SOURCES..: /etc/ODBCDataSources
USER DATA SOURCES..: /home/myuser/.odbc.ini
SQLULEN Size.......: 8
SQLLEN Size........: 8
SQLSETPOSIROW Size.: 8

Installing the Driver

You can download the driver in standard package formats: the Debian .deb package format or the .rpm file format. Once you have downloaded the file, you can install the driver from the terminal.

The driver installer registers the driver with unixODBC and creates a system DSN, which can be used later in any tools or applications that support ODBC connectivity.

For Debian-based systems like Ubuntu, run the following command with sudo or as root:

dpkg -i /path/to/package.deb

For systems that support .rpms, run the following command with sudo or as root:

rpm -i /path/to/package.rpm

Once the driver is installed, you can list the registered drivers and defined data sources using the unixODBC driver manager:

List the Registered Driver(s)

odbcinst -q -d
CData ODBC Driver for Excel
...

List the Defined Data Source(s)

odbcinst -q -s
CData Excel Source
...

To use the CData ODBC Driver for Excel with unixODBC, you need to ensure that the driver is configured to use UTF-16. To do so, edit the INI file for the driver (cdata.odbc.excel.ini), which can be found in the lib folder in the installation location (typically /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-excel), as follows:

cdata.odbc.excel.ini

...

[Driver]
DriverManagerEncoding = UTF-16

Modifying the DSN

When the driver is installed, a system DSN should be predefined. You can modify the DSN by editing the system data sources file (/etc/odbc.ini) and defining the required connection properties. Additionally, you can create user-specific DSNs that will not require root access to modify in $HOME/.odbc.ini.

Connecting to Local or Cloud-Stored (Box, Google Drive, Amazon S3, SharePoint) Excel Files

CData Drivers let you work with Excel files stored locally and stored in cloud storage services like Box, Amazon S3, Google Drive, or SharePoint, right where they are.

Setting connection properties for local files

Set the URI property to local folder path.

Setting connection properties for files stored in Amazon S3

To connect to Excel file(s) within Amazon S3, set the URI property to the URI of the Bucket and Folder where the intended Excel files exist. In addition, at least set these properties:

• AWSAccessKey: AWS Access Key (username)
• AWSSecretKey: AWS Secret Key

Setting connection properties for files stored in Box

To connect to Excel file(s) within Box, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Box.

Dropbox

To connect to Excel file(s) within Dropbox, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect to Dropbox. Either User Account or Service Account can be used to authenticate.

SharePoint Online (SOAP)

To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with SOAP Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. Set User, Password, and StorageBaseURL.

SharePoint Online REST

To connect to Excel file(s) within SharePoint with REST Schema, set the URI proprerty to the URI of the document library that includes the intended Excel file. StorageBaseURL is optional. If not set, the driver will use the root drive. OAuth is used to authenticate.

Google Drive

To connect to Excel file(s) within Google Drive, set the URI property to the URI of the folder that includes the intended Excel file(s). Use the OAuth authentication method to connect and set InitiateOAuth to GETANDREFRESH.

/etc/odbc.ini or $HOME/.odbc.ini

[CData Excel Source]
Driver = /opt/cdata/cdata-odbc-driver-for-excel/lib/libexcelodbc.x64.so
Description = My Description
URI = 'C:/MyExcelWorkbooks/SampleWorkbook.xlsx'

For specific information on using these configuration files, please refer to the help documentation (installed and found online).

Creating a Simple Go App for Excel Data

With the Driver Manager installed and the DSN configured, you are ready to create a simple Go application to work with your Excel data. To start, install a Go driver for ODBC databases. While there are several options available, this article will use the odbc driver found at https://github.com/alexbrainman/odbc.

Installing ODBC on Linux

There are a series of steps required to install the ODBC driver for Go.

1. Create the $HOME/golang/go path (if it does not exist) by entering the following commands in a terminal:

   mkdir /root/golang
   mkdir /root/golang/go
    

2. Define the GOPATH environment variable:

   export GOPATH=$HOME/golang/go
    

3. Create a module inside the new Go directory:

   cd $GOPATH
   go mod init myproject
    

4. Install the Go driver for ODBC databases:

   go get http://github.com/alexbrainman/odbc
    

Now you are ready to create and execute a simple Go application.

Sample Go Application

The sample application issues a simple SQL SELECT query for Excel data and displays the results. Create the directory $GOPATH/src/cdata-odbc-excel and create a new Go source file, copying the source code from below.

cdata-odbc-excel.go

package main

import (
 _ "github.com/alexbrainman/odbc"
 "database/sql"
 "log"
 "fmt"
)

func main() {
 db, err := sql.Open("odbc",
 "DSN=CData Excel Source")
 if err != nil {
 log.Fatal(err)
 }

 var (
 name string
 revenue string
 )

 rows, err := db.Query("SELECT Name, Revenue FROM Sheet WHERE Name = ?", "Bob")
 if err != nil {
 log.Fatal(err)
 }
 defer rows.Close()
 for rows.Next() {
 err := rows.Scan(&name, &revenue)
 if err != nil {
 log.Fatal(err)
 }
 fmt.Println(name, revenue)
 }
 err = rows.Err()
 if err != nil {
 log.Fatal(err)
 }

 defer db.Close()
}

In the terminal, navigate to the Go application directory and build the application:

go build

After the application builds, you will be able to execute the application, displaying your Excel data:

./cdata-odbc-excel

At this point, you have a simple Go application for working with Excel data. From here, you can easily expand the application, adding deeper read/write functionality through familiar SQL queries.