🧩 xl-chunker

xl-chunker is a lightweight Node.js CLI tool that slices huge Excel files into smaller, manageable CSV chunks using streaming — without blowing up your memory.

Built for people who deal with massive spreadsheets and just want things to work.

🚀 What it Does

• 📂 Reads large Excel files efficiently using streaming
• ✂️ Breaks data into row-based chunks
• 🧾 Preserves headers in every output file
• 🎯 Lets you define an exact cell range (e.g. B4 → BN542549)
• 📄 Outputs clean CSV files
• 💾 Saves your settings so you can rerun easily

🛠️ Tech Stack

• Node.js
• ExcelJS (stream reader) – no full-file memory load
• CSV output for maximum compatibility

📦 Installation (Global)

Install xl-chunker globally using npm:

npm install -g xl-chunker

Requires Node.js v14+

▶️ Usage

Once installed globally, run it from anywhere:

xl-chunker

You’ll be prompted for:

• Source file path & name
• Worksheet (tab) name
• Start & end cell (e.g. B4 to BN542549)
• Chunk size (rows per file)
• Output directory
• Output file name template

📂 Example Output

users_part1.csv
users_part2.csv
users_part3.csv
...

Each file automatically includes the header row.

🔁 Reusing Settings

After the first successful run, a Setting.json file is generated.

Next time, just provide the path to this file and skip all prompts 🚀

⚡ Why xl-chunker?

• ❌ No Excel crashes
• ❌ No RAM overload
• ✅ Fast & streaming-based
• ✅ Simple CLI
• ✅ Perfect for automation

Ideal for:

• Data migration
• ETL pipelines
• Upload size limits
• Analytics preprocessing

🧠 Pro Tip

If Excel struggles to open your file, xl-chunker won’t.
It processes rows one-by-one like a champ 💪

🧪 Local Development

Clone and test locally:

git clone https://github.com/your-username/xl-chunker.git
cd xl-chunker
npm install
npm link
xl-chunker

📄 License

MIT — do whatever you want, just don’t blame me 😉