what is an ods file in excel

An ODS file is a spreadsheet file format that stands for OpenDocument Spreadsheet Document format. It is an XML-based format and is one of the several subtypes in the Open Document Formats (ODF) family. ODS files are editable by the user and data is stored inside the file into rows and columns. The format is specified as part of the ODF 1.2 specifications published and maintained by OASIS. ODS files are compatible with several applications on Windows and other operating systems, including Microsoft Excel, NeoOffice, and LibreOffice. When opening or saving worksheets in the OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods) format, some formatting might be lost due to the different features and options that OpenDocument Spreadsheet applications and Excel support. However, Excel can be used to open or save a worksheet in the OpenDocument Spreadsheet (.ods) format.