Excel Version
|
Commercial Name
|
BIFF Version
|
Release Year
|
Notes
|
2.x |
Excel 2.0 |
BIFF2 |
1987 |
Before CFBF. File is the BIFF stream, containing a single
worksheet. |
3.0 |
Excel 3.0 |
BIFF3 |
1990 |
Before CFBF. File is the BIFF stream, containing a single
worksheet. |
4.0 |
Excel 4.0 |
BIFF4 |
1992 |
Before CFBF. File is the BIFF stream, containing a single
worksheet. |
5.0 |
Excel 5.0 |
BIFF5 |
1993 |
Starting with BIFF5, a single Workbook can internally store many
individual Worksheets. The BIFF stream is stored in the CFBF file
container. |
7.0 |
Excel 95 |
BIFF5 |
1995 |
|
8.0 |
Excel 98 |
BIFF8 |
1998 |
|
9.0 |
Excel 2000 |
BIFF8 |
1999 |
|
10.0 |
Excel XP |
BIFF8 |
2001 |
|
11.0 |
Excel 2003 |
BIFF8 |
2003 |
|
12.0 |
Excel 2007 |
BIFF8 |
2007 |
Introduced alternate XML format, which is usually the default
for new files. |
14.0 |
Excel 2010 |
BIFF8 |
2010 |
XML format is usually the default for new files. |
Note that FreeXL does not support the new XML format which is a completely
different and unrelated format.
Perhaps you are now expecting that BIFF will simply and directly encode your
spreadsheet data. Unfortunately, you should have know better given the steps
we took to get here...
Unexpected Revelation #4:
BIFF Record Type |
BIFF Version |
Content Type |
INTEGER |
BIFF2 |
16 bit unsigned integer |
NUMBER |
BIFF2 BIFF3 BIFF4 BIFF5 BIFF8 |
64 bit floating point (double precision) |
RK |
BIFF3 BIFF4 BIFF5 BIFF8 |
number, variant-type: INTEGER FLOAT DATE DATETIME TIME
(please see the corresponding detailed description) |
MULRK |
BIFF5 BIFF8 |
a variable-sized array of elementary RK values.
associated to a range of consecutive cells on the same row |
LABEL |
BIFF2 BIFF3 BIFF4 BIFF5 BIFF8 |
text string, variable-length.
(please see the corresponding detailed description) |
LABELSST |
BIFF8 |
text string, variable-length. based on the global SST
[Shared String Table] stored at the workbook level, so a LABELSST simply
requires providing the corresponding SST index. |
So the BIFF record type that is easy to handle is NUMBER, which is essentially
a C-style