diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 36aade55..9c822ba9 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+# ExcelReaders.jl v1.1.0 Release Notes
+* `readxl` supports open-ended ranges: the row number may be omitted on
+  either end, so `"Sheet1!A3:A"` reads from row 3 to the last used row and
+  `"Sheet1!A:A"` reads the whole column
+* Ranges that extend beyond the used part of a sheet return NA-filled cells
+  for both backends (this already worked since v1.0.0; now covered by tests)
+
 # ExcelReaders.jl v1.0.0 Release Notes
 * Drop the PyCall/xlrd backend: legacy xls files are now read natively via
   LibXLS.jl and modern xlsx files via XLSX.jl, with the file format detected
diff --git a/src/ExcelReaders.jl b/src/ExcelReaders.jl
index ae95c231..77b0f8fe 100644
--- a/src/ExcelReaders.jl
+++ b/src/ExcelReaders.jl
@@ -260,16 +260,24 @@ function convert_ref_to_sheet_row_col(range::AbstractString)
     m = match(r, range)
     m === nothing && error("Invalid Excel range specified.")
     sheetname = String(m.captures[1])
-    startrow = parse(Int, m.captures[3])
-    startcol = colnum(m.captures[2])
     if m.captures[4] === nothing
+        # a single cell reference needs both a column and a row
+        (isempty(m.captures[2]) || isempty(m.captures[3])) && error("Invalid Excel range specified.")
+        startrow = parse(Int, m.captures[3])
+        startcol = colnum(m.captures[2])
         endrow = startrow
         endcol = startcol
     else
-        endrow = parse(Int, m.captures[6])
+        (isempty(m.captures[2]) || isempty(m.captures[5])) && error("Invalid Excel range specified.")
+        startcol = colnum(m.captures[2])
         endcol = colnum(m.captures[5])
+        # Row numbers may be omitted on either end ("A3:A", "A:A"): a missing
+        # start row means the first row, and a missing end row is returned as
+        # 0 and resolved to the last used row of the sheet by the caller.
+        startrow = isempty(m.captures[3]) ? 1 : parse(Int, m.captures[3])
+        endrow = isempty(m.captures[6]) ? 0 : parse(Int, m.captures[6])
     end
-    if (startrow > endrow) || (startcol > endcol)
+    if (endrow != 0 && startrow > endrow) || (startcol > endcol)
         error("Please provide rectangular region from top left to bottom right corner")
     end
     return sheetname, startrow, startcol, endrow, endcol
@@ -281,7 +289,9 @@ end
 Read the given range from an Excel file and return its content as a matrix
 (or a single value for a single-cell range). `file` is either a filename or
 an `ExcelFile` from [`openxl`](@ref); `range` is a full Excel range
-specification such as `"Sheet1!A1:C4"`.
+specification such as `"Sheet1!A1:C4"`. The row number may be omitted on
+either end of the range: `"Sheet1!A3:A"` reads column A from row 3 to the
+last used row of the sheet, and `"Sheet1!A:A"` reads the whole column.
 """
 function readxl(filename::AbstractString, range::AbstractString)
     excelfile = openxl(filename)
@@ -292,6 +302,10 @@ end
 function readxl(file::ExcelFile, range::AbstractString)
     sheetname, startrow, startcol, endrow, endcol = convert_ref_to_sheet_row_col(range)
     ws = sheet_handle(file, sheetname)
+    if endrow == 0
+        # open-ended range like "A3:A": read to the last used row
+        endrow = max(sheet_dims(ws)[1], startrow)
+    end
     readxl_internal(ws, startrow, startcol, endrow, endcol)
 end
 
diff --git a/test/test_excelreaders.jl b/test/test_excelreaders.jl
index 4ebfb00b..bb15c2be 100644
--- a/test/test_excelreaders.jl
+++ b/test/test_excelreaders.jl
@@ -234,3 +234,49 @@ end
     @test_throws ErrorException readxlnames(xls)
     @test_throws ErrorException readxlrange(xls, "block")
 end
+
+@testitem "Open-ended ranges" begin
+    using Dates, DataValues
+
+    for name in ["TestData.xls", "TestData.xlsx"]
+        f = openxl(normpath(@__DIR__, name))
+
+        data = readxl(f, "Sheet1!C4:C")
+        @test size(data, 2) == 1
+        @test data[1, 1] == 1.0
+        @test data[2, 1] == 1.5
+        @test data[3, 1] == 2.0
+
+        # a fully open range spans all rows of the sheet
+        data2 = readxl(f, "Sheet1!C:C")
+        @test size(data2, 1) == size(data, 1) + 3
+        @test DataValues.isna(data2[1, 1])
+        @test data2[4, 1] == 1.0
+
+        data3 = readxl(f, "Sheet1!C3:D")
+        @test data3[1, 1] == "Some Float64s"
+        @test data3[2, 2] == "A"
+
+        @test_throws ErrorException readxl(f, "Sheet1!C4:G3")
+        @test_throws ErrorException readxl(f, "Sheet1!:C")
+        @test_throws ErrorException readxl(f, "Sheet1!C4:")
+    end
+end
+
+@testitem "Ranges beyond the data" begin
+    using DataValues
+
+    # Ranges that extend beyond the used part of the sheet come back as
+    # NA-filled cells rather than erroring (issue #49).
+    for name in ["TestData.xls", "TestData.xlsx"]
+        f = openxl(normpath(@__DIR__, name))
+
+        data = readxl(f, "Sheet1!A1:AB60")
+        @test size(data) == (60, 28)
+        @test data[4, 3] == 1.0
+        @test DataValues.isna(data[1, 1])
+        @test DataValues.isna(data[60, 28])
+
+        @test DataValues.isna(readxl(f, "Sheet1!AB60"))
+    end
+end