Open a MS Excel file from within Ruby

ruby-talk
1

Hi.

I'm writing a small Ruby pgm to demonstrate that FasterCVS is a good
way to handle CSV data.

I put up a small CSV file and demonstrated the FasterCSV aspect. I'd
like to precede that step by automatically bringing up the CSV file in
Excel. (I know I could bring it up manually, but I'd like a self-
contained demo for a computer-illiterate person.)

I've got "fn" set to a string which is the fully qualified name of the
CSV file. I concocted the (failing) command:

SystemCommand.start("Excel", fn)

based on my interpretation of the RDoc for Shell::SystemCommand. I
took a wild stabs to no avail at adding "require 'system'" and
"require 'shel'"

I'm running:
ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i386-mswin32]
WinXP-Pro/SP3

TIA,
Richard

2

-------- Original-Nachricht --------

Datum: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:24:53 +0900
Von: RichardOnRails <RichardDummyMailbox58407@uscomputergurus.com>
An: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
Betreff: Open a MS Excel file from within Ruby

Hi.

I'm writing a small Ruby pgm to demonstrate that FasterCVS is a good
way to handle CSV data.

I put up a small CSV file and demonstrated the FasterCSV aspect. I'd
like to precede that step by automatically bringing up the CSV file in
Excel. (I know I could bring it up manually, but I'd like a self-
contained demo for a computer-illiterate person.)

I've got "fn" set to a string which is the fully qualified name of the
CSV file. I concocted the (failing) command:

SystemCommand.start("Excel", fn)

based on my interpretation of the RDoc for Shell::SystemCommand. I
took a wild stabs to no avail at adding "require 'system'" and
"require 'shel'"

I'm running:
ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i386-mswin32]
WinXP-Pro/SP3

TIA,
Richard

Dear Richard,

look here:

Best regards,

Axel

···

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3

You probably should look at system (its in kernel so no require
needed)
something like:
system "start excel c:\\pathto\\my\\file.csv"

cheers

···

On Oct 25, 1:20 pm, RichardOnRails <RichardDummyMailbox58...@uscomputergurus.com> wrote:

Hi.

I'm writing a small Ruby pgm to demonstrate that FasterCVS is a good
way to handle CSV data.

I put up a small CSV file and demonstrated the FasterCSV aspect. I'd
like to precede that step by automatically bringing up the CSV file in
Excel. (I know I could bring it up manually, but I'd like a self-
contained demo for a computer-illiterate person.)

I've got "fn" set to a string which is the fully qualified name of the
CSV file. I concocted the (failing) command:

SystemCommand.start("Excel", fn)

based on my interpretation of the RDoc for Shell::SystemCommand. I
took a wild stabs to no avail at adding "require 'system'" and
"require 'shel'"

I'm running:
ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i386-mswin32]
WinXP-Pro/SP3

TIA,
Richard

4

Hi Axel & Chris,

Thanks for your responses. I had some success, but was unable to get
at the content of my Excel file.

Axel, I was able the get an Excel instance and find it's methods.
What I didn't find but think I need it to access the content of a
worksheet.

Chris, I was unable to use "system" to open an Excel file.

Maybe I little dense (or two dense to foll around with Win32OLE.)
Below is the code I fooled around with. If you have any other ideas,
I'd be grateful to receive them.

Best wishes,
Richard

# LoadDataTest.rb
# K:\_Projects\Ruby\_Rails_Apps\PayrollLoader
require 'win32ole'
pgm = DATA.read.chomp
fn = DATA.read.chomp
puts pgm, fn, ""

excel = WIN32OLE.new('Excel.Application')
# puts excel.methods.sort --worked fine
# puts excel.ole_get_methods--worked fine also, I think
# Try to find an "open" method:
excel.ole_methods.each { |meth| puts meth if meth.to_s =~ /Op/i }
#system( "pgm", fn ) # Couldn't open the document

puts "", "EOJ"
__END__
F:\Docume~1\AllUse~1\StartM~1\Programs\_Microsoft
\Micros~3\Micros~2.lnk
K:\_Projects\Ruby\_Rails_Apps\PayrollLoader\TestSheet.csv

AceI fooled around with

···

On Oct 27, 1:57 pm, Chris Hulan <chris.hu...@gmail.com> wrote:

On Oct 25, 1:20 pm, RichardOnRails > > > > <RichardDummyMailbox58...@uscomputergurus.com> wrote:
> Hi.

> I'm writing a small Ruby pgm to demonstrate that FasterCVS is a good
> way to handle CSV data.

> I put up a small CSV file and demonstrated the FasterCSV aspect. I'd
> like to precede that step by automatically bringing up the CSV file in
> Excel. (I know I could bring it up manually, but I'd like a self-
> contained demo for a computer-illiterate person.)

> I've got "fn" set to a string which is the fully qualified name of the
> CSV file. I concocted the (failing) command:

> SystemCommand.start("Excel", fn)

> based on my interpretation of the RDoc for Shell::SystemCommand. I
> took a wild stabs to no avail at adding "require 'system'" and
> "require 'shel'"

> I'm running:
> ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i386-mswin32]
> WinXP-Pro/SP3

> TIA,
> Richard

You probably should look at system (its in kernel so no require
needed)
something like:
system "start excel c:\\pathto\\my\\file.csv"

cheers

5

Barf! Avoid OLE like the plague. When you're handling large numbers of
Excel files with Win32OLE you more or less need to monopolize Excel's usage
with Ruby. I find I also have large amounts of data stored in Window's
paste board.

Give Spreadsheet gem a shot:
http://rubyforge.org/forum/forum.php?forum_id=28069\. It's OS-independent,
and you avoid the crap I talked about above.

James

···

On Sat, Oct 25, 2008 at 1:20 PM, Axel Etzold <AEtzold@gmx.de> wrote:

-------- Original-Nachricht --------
> Datum: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:24:53 +0900
> Von: RichardOnRails <RichardDummyMailbox58407@uscomputergurus.com>
> An: ruby-talk@ruby-lang.org
> Betreff: Open a MS Excel file from within Ruby

> Hi.
>
> I'm writing a small Ruby pgm to demonstrate that FasterCVS is a good
> way to handle CSV data.
>
> I put up a small CSV file and demonstrated the FasterCSV aspect. I'd
> like to precede that step by automatically bringing up the CSV file in
> Excel. (I know I could bring it up manually, but I'd like a self-
> contained demo for a computer-illiterate person.)
>
> I've got "fn" set to a string which is the fully qualified name of the
> CSV file. I concocted the (failing) command:
>
> SystemCommand.start("Excel", fn)
>
> based on my interpretation of the RDoc for Shell::SystemCommand. I
> took a wild stabs to no avail at adding "require 'system'" and
> "require 'shel'"
>
> I'm running:
> ruby 1.8.6 (2007-09-24 patchlevel 111) [i386-mswin32]
> WinXP-Pro/SP3
>
> TIA,
> Richard

Dear Richard,

look here:

Ruby on Windows: Ruby & WIN32OLE: Inspecting Objects

Best regards,

Axel
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6

...
# Axel, I was able the get an Excel instance and
# find it's methods. What I didn't find but think I
# need it to access the content of a worksheet.

pls read more on what Axel pointed out..

i just tried the ff now eg, and it works

require 'win32ole'
#=> false
xl = WIN32OLE.new('Excel.Application')
#=> #<WIN32OLE:0x2835674>
wb = xl.Workbooks.Open('/family/ruby/Book1.xls')
#=> #<WIN32OLE:0x2820ff8>
worksheet = wb.Worksheets('Sheet1')
#=> #<WIN32OLE:0x28f94ac>
worksheet.Range('a1')['Value']
#=> 1.0
worksheet.Range('a1:b4')['Value']
#=> [[1.0, "this"], [2.0, "is"], [3.0, "a"], [4.0, "test"]]

···

From: RichardOnRails