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							|  |  |  | # Zen of SheetJS
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							|  |  |  | SheetJS design and development is guided by a few key principles. | 
					
						
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							|  |  |  | ### Data processing should fit in any workflow
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							|  |  |  | The library does not impose a separate lifecycle.  It fits nicely in websites | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | and apps built using any framework.  The plain JS data objects play nice with | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | Web Workers and future APIs. | 
					
						
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							|  |  |  | ### JavaScript is a powerful language for data processing
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										 |  |  | The ["Common Spreadsheet Format"](/docs/csf/general) is a simple object | 
					
						
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										 |  |  | representation of the core concepts of a workbook. [Utilities](/docs/api/utilities/) | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | provide low-level tools for working with the object. | 
					
						
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										 |  |  | SheetJS provides convenient methods for processing common JavaScript data | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | structures. The [Export Tutorial](/docs/getting-started/examples/export) | 
					
						
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										 |  |  | combines powerful JS Array methods with a network request library to download | 
					
						
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										 |  |  | data, select the information we want and create a workbook file. | 
					
						
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							|  |  |  | ### File formats are implementation details
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							|  |  |  | The parser covers a wide gamut of common spreadsheet file formats to ensure that | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | "HTML-saved-as-XLS" files work as well as actual XLS or XLSX files. | 
					
						
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							|  |  |  | The writer supports a number of common output formats for broad compatibility | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | with the data ecosystem. | 
					
						
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							|  |  |  | To the greatest extent possible, data processing code should not have to worry | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | about the specific file formats involved. | 
					
						
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										 |  |  | ### Data processing should be confidential
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							|  |  |  | All SheetJS-related methods run locally. No data is sent to a third party in | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | processing data. No telemetry is collected. | 
					
						
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							|  |  |  | SheetJS libraries are regularly used in offline scenarios to process personally | 
					
						
							|  |  |  | identifiable information (PII) and other classified data. |