Open a MS Excel file from within Ruby

[RichardOnRails]

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

 

[Axel Etzold]

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

Datum: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:24:53 +0900
Von: RichardOnRails <[email protected]>
An: (e-mail address removed)
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:

http://rubyonwindows.blogspot.com/2007/04/ruby-win32ole-inspecting-objects.html

Best regards,

Axel

 

[Chris Hulan]

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

 

[RichardOnRails]

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

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

 

[Peña, Botp]

From: RichardOnRails=20
...=20
# Axel, I was able the get an Excel instance and=20
# find it's methods. What I didn't find but think I=20
# 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'
#=3D> false
xl =3D WIN32OLE.new('Excel.Application')
#=3D> #<WIN32OLE:0x2835674>
wb =3D xl.Workbooks.Open('/family/ruby/Book1.xls')
#=3D> #<WIN32OLE:0x2820ff8>
worksheet =3D wb.Worksheets('Sheet1')
#=3D> #<WIN32OLE:0x28f94ac>
worksheet.Range('a1')['Value']
#=3D> 1.0
worksheet.Range('a1:b4')['Value']
#=3D> [[1.0, "this"], [2.0, "is"], [3.0, "a"], [4.0, "test"]]

 

[RichardOnRails]

Barf!  Avoid OLE like the plague.  When you're handling large numbersof
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

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

Datum: Sun, 26 Oct 2008 02:24:53 +0900
Von: RichardOnRails <[email protected]>
An: (e-mail address removed)
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

Hi All,

Thanks for your responses. I posted what I tried so far on
http://www.pastie.org/304680

(Anonymous): I did check out http://rubyonwindows.blogspot.com/2007/04/ruby-win32ole-inspecting-objects.html
but didn’t see (or perhaps didn’t recognize) an answer to my
question. But your example worked fine for my simple needs. Thank
you very much.

James: OLE has lots of people using it for Windows applications.. I
have a user who uses Excel spreadsheets and I wanted to be able to
manipulate that data through a Rails app. This little solution will
work fine for my purposes. Mainly, I’ll be using a .csv extract of
that data and a “cvs reader” gem to access that data ...which BTW
works fine.

Again, thanks to all for posting responses.

Best wishes,
Richard