Re: Using Win32OLE with Excel leaves Excel process hanging

Also 
excel.ActiveWorkbook.Close(0);
probably wouldn't be a bad idea.

It seems like you were expecting a GC to clean up, in Ruby it can, but
there are problems interfacing with other progs.  Try
ObjectSpace#define_finalizer for a destructor.

"Robert C. Martin" wrote:
> 
> I have created a neat little ruby program that generates a useful
> graph in Excel.  I keep the program on my desktop and doubleclick it
> whenever I want to see the graph.  Unfortunately, once I invoke this
> program, it seems to leave a process running in the system.  After
> 20min or so, it will stop working.  What's more, it often prevents
> other OLE operations from working in other applications.  It can be
> fixed by a logout/logon.  I'm using windows 2000.
> 
> Any ideas?
> 
> Here is the code for AmazonAnalyzer.rb
> 
> require 'AmazonAnalyzer'
> require 'win32ole'
> 
> if __FILE__ == $0
>   periodLength = 7
>   if (ARGV[0] != nil) && (ARGV[0].to_i > 0)
>     periodLength = ARGV[0].to_i
>   end
> 
>   puts "Running Amazon Analyzer with period length #{periodLength}"
> 
>   analyzer = AmazonAnalyzer.new()
>   analyzer.analyzeFile("bookData", periodLength)
> 
>   excel = WIN32OLE.new("excel.application")
>   workbook = excel.Workbooks.Add()
> 
>   col = 'b'
>   row = "1"
>   analyzer.startDate.step(analyzer.endDate,periodLength) {|date|
>     excel.Range(col+row).value = date.to_s
>     col = col.succ
>   }
> 
>   isbns = analyzer.isbns
>   isbns.each {|isbn|
>     col='a'
>     row = row.succ
>     title = analyzer.getTitleFor(isbn)
>     title = title.split(':')[0]
>     title = title.split('(')[0]
>     title = title[0,40]
>     excel.Range(col+row).value = title
> 
>     periods = analyzer.getPeriodsForIsbn(isbn)
>     0.upto(periods.max) {|period|
>       col = col.succ
>       if periods.include?(period)
>         excel.Range(col+row).value =
>           analyzer.getRange(isbn,period).mean
>       end
>     }
>   }
>   xlLine=4
>   xlValue=2
>   xlRows=1
>   xlScaleLogarithmic = -4133
>   excel.Range("a1:"+col+row).Select()
>   excelChart = workbook.Charts.Add()
>   excelChart.type = xlLine
>   excelChart.plotBy=xlRows
>   excelChart.Legend.Font.Size=8
>   excelChart.Axes(xlValue).scaleType = xlScaleLogarithmic
>   excelChart.Axes(xlValue).minimumScale = 100
> 
>   workbook.saved = true
>   excel.visible = true
> end
> 
> Robert C. Martin  | "Uncle Bob"
> Object Mentor Inc.| unclebob @ objectmentor . com
> PO Box 5757       | Tel: [phone]
> 565 Lakeview Pkwy | Fax: [phone]           | www.objectmentor.com
> Suite 135         |                               | www.XProgramming.com
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> 60061             | OO, XP, Java, C++, Python     |
> 
> "One of the great commandments of science is:
>     'Mistrust arguments from authority.'" -- Carl Sagan

-- 
Alexander Schofield