From: "Berger, Daniel" <djberge@...>
Date: 2002-07-20T04:17:06+09:00
Subject: RE: Now to skip processing of first line in a file....and reading	 an  Excel file?

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Hal E. Fulton [mailto:hal9000@hypermetrics.com] 
> > > From: Kurt Euler [mailto:keuler@portal.com]
> >
> > <snip>
> >
> > > On a related note, is there a way read in the rows of an
> > > Excel file as one would read in the lines of a text file? If
> > > so, please advise how. Or, perhaps there's a method for
> > > reading an Excel file into a 2D array. Again, please advise.
> >
> > If you're feeling up to the task you could port the two related Perl
> > modules.  They would definitely be a good place to start for anyone
> > considering such a task.
> >
> > Spreadsheet::ParseExcel for reading Excel files by Kawai Takanori
> >
> > Spreadsheet::WriteExcel for creating Excel files by John McNamara
> 
> There may be another possibility.
> I'm sure Excel exposes some kind of COM interface.
> Disclaimer: IANAC (I Am Not A COMmie).  :)
> 
> You could perhaps use RubyCOM to access this
> interface and query Excel about the spreadsheet
> contents. No porting then.
            ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

That's the big problem with this approach, I think (I don't know COM, but
I'm guessing it doesn't work on *nix).

One other problem.  Spreadsheets created by WriteExcel cannot be parsed by
ParseExcel.  That may be something to consider dealing with from the start
for anyone considering a port.

Regards,

Dan