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Excel: What Is the Native File Format for Excel?
June 17, 2025
What’s up with XLS, XLSX, XLSB, XLSM? Which one should I use?
You should use XLSX.
XLS files were the only native file format up through Excel 2003. This file format cannot accommodate more than 65,536 rows. This format is known as a binary file format.
XLSB is the Excel 2007 equivalent of XLS. It is also a binary file format, but it can accommodate 1,048,576 rows.
XLSX is a new Excel 2007 file format where all of the data is saved in several XML files, then those files are zipped into a single XLSX file format. The result is smaller files. XLSX is a file format that does not allow macros. If you are reading this book, it is likely that you are not yet creating Excel macros in your workbook, so XLSX is fine.
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