Systems and methods for reduced memory usage when processing spreadsheet files

Abstract

A method and associated apparatus provide for accessing contents of a worksheet file comprising a worksheet structure file and a shared strings table file. The method comprises processing the shared strings table file by opening the shared strings table file, and identifying a plurality of shared strings within the opened shared strings table file, and, for each shared string, creating an access record in an access table comprising a shared string identifier, a starting offset into a shared string text file, and a length, and retrieving data for a requested cell by obtaining a requested cell shared string identifier from the worksheet structure file, locating a requested cell access record in the access table, retrieving a requested cell string from the shared string text file at a position indicated by the starting offset and for a length indicated by the record length, and outputting the retrieved string.