Reading and writing Excel files with Perl:
“If you are using a Windows machine, stick with the Win32::OLE modules unless you don’t have Excel at all on your machine. Win32::OLE is the easiest way to get Excel data right now, although the Spreadsheet::WriteExcel and Spreadsheet::ParseExcel modules are catching up.
On UNIX, especially Linux, go with the Spreadsheet::WriteExcel and Spreadsheet::ParseExcel modules for programmatic access to Excel data. But be forewarned that these are fairly young modules, and they may not be perfect for you if you need stability.”
“This article describes Spreadsheet::WriteExcel, a cross-platform Perl module designed to write data in the Microsoft Excel binary format. It highlights the fact that although Perl is most often associated with text files, it can readily handle binary files as well. This article also looks at alternative methods for producing Excel files and suggests some methods for reading them.”
Integrating Perl into Microsoft Office Innards:
“This article is describes a scenario in which a complete Perl solution (using an external Perl script to automate Office) wasn’t appropriate, but a hybrid Perl/non-Perl approach was, and how PerlCOM made that hybrid solution almost trivially simple.”
[ via aaron ]