Reading xml file of Excel shcema `xmlns:x2="http://schemas.microsoft.com/office/excel/2003/xml"` using xml-package (Omegahat) functions. NOTE: this is not newer Excel doc format, but older xml. Used as [Surveygizmo](http://www.surveygizmo.com/) export for example.

R_xml_read_excel.r

library(XML)

#file.xml <- # assign it

## list of row-nodes
lsrows <- xmlChildren(xmlRoot(xmlTreeParse(file.xml))[["Worksheet"]][["Table"]])

## row names are lsrows[[1]]
nms.rows <- xmlSApply(lsrows[[1]], xmlValue)

## spreadsheet values for each row are lsrows[[2,...]]
lsvals <- lapply(lsrows[-1], function(r) xmlSApply(r, xmlValue))
## now use list to form a data frame or process otherwise