Les Mikesell wrote, On 10/18/2010 06:13 PM: > I'm getting tired of converting spreadsheets that someone else updates > to csv so my perl scripts can push the data into a mysql database. Is > there a better way? I haven't had much luck with > perl-Spreadsheet-ParseExcel (and find it odd that yum prefers the .32 > version from epel over .57 from rpmforge anyway). Is the current CPAN > version better? Or the equivalent java tools? Or maybe a scripted > OpenOffice conversion would be possible. > > Needs to deal with both xls and xlsx formats, the odd characters that > are confused with quotes even after csv conversion, numbers with $'s and > commas embedded, excel's date formatting nonsense, etc. > Would it cause more headaches than it would solve, for you to hook the excel folks directly to the mysql db and have their changes take place immediately? Assuming a LAN environment here instead of 'the only connection is email'. Could you do the sanity checking you currently do by using some db functions? "MySQL Forums :: Microsoft Access :: Connecting MS Office, MS Excel, MS Access to MySQL using ODBC" http://forums.mysql.com/read.php?65,148441,148441 * OK, I often come at problems from a different direction. * -- Todd Denniston Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane) Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter