Issue with charts that fail to open in Microsoft 365 Excel

[jsanchezf]

Hi,

I am using XlsxWriter to do create charts from some data but it appears that loading the result in Excel fails with the classical "Excel could not open file.xlsx because some content is unreadable. Do you want to open and repair this workbook."

I am using Python version 3.6.3 and XlsxWriter 3.2.0 and Excel version:

Microsoft® Excel® para Microsoft 365 MSO (versión 2311 compilación 16.0.17029.20140) de 32 bits

(It is a Spanish-language version)

Here is some code that demonstrates the problem:

import xlsxwriter
workbook = xlsxwriter.Workbook('chart_pie.xlsx')
worksheet = workbook.add_worksheet()

data = [
    ['Apple',  60],
    ['Cherry', 30],
    ['Pecan',  10],
]

worksheet.add_table('A1:B4', {'data': data,
                              'columns': [{'header': 'Types'},
                                         {'header': 'Number'}]}
)

chart = workbook.add_chart({'type': 'pie'})

chart.add_series({
    'name':       '=Sheet1!$A$1',
    'categories': '=Sheet1!$A$2:$A$4',
    'values':     '=Sheet1!$B$2:$B$4',
})

worksheet.insert_chart('D2', chart)

workbook.close()

Yes, it is the sample code from https://xlsxwriter.readthedocs.io/working_with_charts.html#working-with-charts

[jsanchezf]

I attach the resulting xlsx file generated from the sample code and that fails to load.

chart_pie.xlsx

The problem content is that in xl/drawings/drawing1.xml

[jmcnamara]

Thanks for the detailed report.

However, I can't reproduce it in 3 different versions of Excel that I tried including one that is close to yours:

Microsoft® Excel® for Microsoft 365 MSO (Version 2401 Build 16.0.17231.20194) 64-bit

I get the same, successful, result with the file you attached.

[jsanchezf]

I can also read it with a 16.0.13901.20516 64 bits on a different computer. I have also succeeded with LibreOffice. It is weird message to show if it were a setting on my side. But you never can tell.

[jmcnamara]

Could you try the attached file. It was created from scratch in Excel 2007.

gh1044.xlsx

[jmcnamara]

Could you try the attached file. It was created from scratch in Excel 2007.

Any update on this?

[jsanchezf]

Sorry for not getting back to you earlier. I had this in the backburner waiting to do a system reboot and I did not notice your update. Your file loads cleanly but so does my original sample now. So the conclusion is that xlsxwriter is right, but may be triggering faults in Excel or the environment that only manifest in very particular circumstances. Unfortunately, I cannot ascertain what those circumstances might be. Some malware defense, maybe, though no trace of it has been found.

Thanks for your help.

Should I close the issue myself?

[jmcnamara]

Thanks for getting back to me with that information. It will be good to know in case it ever happens again.