Read(3pm)						User Contributed Perl Documentation						 Read(3pm)

NAME

	Spreadsheet::Read - Read the data from a spreadsheet

SYNOPSIS

	use Spreadsheet::Read;
	my $ref = ReadData ("test.csv", sep => ";");
	my $ref = ReadData ("test.sxc");
	my $ref = ReadData ("test.ods");
	my $ref = ReadData ("test.xls");
	my $ref = ReadData ("test.xlsx");
	my $ref = ReadData ($fh, parser => "xls");

	my $a3 = $ref->[1]{A3}, "
"; # content of field A3 of sheet 1

DESCRIPTION

       Spreadsheet::Read tries to transparently read *any* spreadsheet and return its content in a universal manner independent of the parsing
       module that does the actual spreadsheet scanning.

       For OpenOffice this module uses Spreadsheet::ReadSXC

       For Microsoft Excel this module uses Spreadsheet::ParseExcel or Spreadsheet::XLSX

       For CSV this module uses Text::CSV_XS (0.29 or up required, 0.73 or up preferred) or Text::CSV_PP (1.05 or up required).

       For SquirrelCalc there is a very simplistic built-in parser

   Data structure
       The data is returned as an array reference:

	 $ref = [
	       # Entry 0 is the overall control hash
	       { sheets  => 2,
		 sheet	 => {
		   "Sheet 1"   => 1,
		   "Sheet 2"   => 2,
		   },
		 type	 => "xls",
		 parser  => "Spreadsheet::ParseExcel",
		 version => 0.26,
		 },
	       # Entry 1 is the first sheet
	       { label	=> "Sheet 1",
		 maxrow => 2,
		 maxcol => 4,
		 cell	=> [ undef,
		   [ undef, 1 ],
		   [ undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, "Nugget" ],
		   ],
		 A1	=> 1,
		 B5	=> "Nugget",
		 },
	       # Entry 2 is the second sheet
	       { label => "Sheet 2",
		 :
	       :

       To keep as close contact to spreadsheet users, row and column 1 have index 1 too in the "cell" element of the sheet hash, so cell "A1" is
       the same as "cell" [1, 1] (column first). To switch between the two, there are two helper functions available: "cell2cr ()" and "cr2cell
       ()".

       The "cell" hash entry contains unformatted data, while the hash entries with the traditional labels contain the formatted values (if
       applicable).

       The control hash (the first entry in the returned array ref), contains some spreadsheet meta-data. The entry "sheet" is there to be able to
       find the sheets when accessing them by name:

	 my %sheet2 = %{$ref->[$ref->[0]{sheet}{"Sheet 2"}]};

   Functions
       my $ref = ReadData ($source [, option => value [, ... ]]);
       my $ref = ReadData ("file.csv", sep => ',', quote => '"');
       my $ref = ReadData ("file.xls", dtfmt => "yyyy-mm-dd");
       my $ref = ReadData ("file.ods");
       my $ref = ReadData ("file.sxc");
       my $ref = ReadData ("content.xml");
       my $ref = ReadData ($content);
       my $ref = ReadData ($fh, parser => "xls");
	 Tries to convert the given file, string, or stream to the data structure described above.

	 Processing Excel data from a stream or content is supported through a File::Temp temporary file or IO::Scalar when available.

	 ReadSXC does preserve sheet order as of version 0.20.

	 Currently supported options are:

	 parser
	   Force the data to be parsed by a specific format. Possible values are "csv", "prl" (or "perl"), "sc" (or "squirelcalc"), "sxc" (or
	   "oo", "ods", "openoffice") "xls" (or "excel"), and "xlsx" (or "excel2007").

	   When parsing streams, instead of files, it is highly recommended to pass this option.

	 cells
	   Control the generation of named cells ("A1" etc). Default is true.

	 rc
	   Control the generation of the {cell}[c][r] entries. Default is true.

	 attr
	   Control the generation of the {attr}[c][r] entries. Default is false.  See "Cell Attributes" below.

	 clip
	   If set, "ReadData ()" will remove all trailing lines and columns per sheet that have no visual data.  This option is only valid if
	   "cells" is true. The default value is true if "cells" is true, and false otherwise.

	 strip
	   If set, "ReadData ()" will remove trailing- and/or leading-whitespace from every field.

	     strip  leading  strailing
	     -----  -------  ---------
	       0      n/a      n/a
	       1     strip     n/a
	       2      n/a     strip
	       3     strip    strip

	 sep
	   Set separator for CSV. Default is comma ",".

	 quote
	   Set quote character for CSV. Default is """.

	 dtfmt
	   Set the format for M$Excel date fields that are set to use the default date format. The default format in Excel is 'm-d-yy', which is
	   both not year 2000 safe, nor very useful. The default is now 'yyyy-mm-dd', which is more ISO-like.

	   Note that date formatting in M$Excel is not reliable at all, as it will store/replace/change the date field separator in already stored
	   formats if you change your locale settings. So the above mentioned default can be either "m-d-yy" OR "m/d/yy" depending on what that
	   specific character happened to be at the time the user saved the file.

	 debug
	   Enable some diagnostic messages to STDERR.

	   The value determines how much diagnostics are dumped (using Data::Dumper).  A value of 9 and higher will dump the entire structure from
	   the back-end parser.

   Using CSV
       In case of CSV parsing, "ReadData ()" will use the first line of the file to auto-detect the separation character if the first argument is
       a file and both "sep" and "quote" are not passed as attributes. Text::CSV_XS (or Text::CSV_PP) is able to automatically detect and use "
"
       line endings).

       CSV can parse streams too, but be sure to pass "sep" and/or "quote" if these do not match the default "," and """.

   Functions
       my $cell = cr2cell (col, row)
	   "cr2cell ()" converts a "(column, row)" pair (1 based) to the traditional cell notation:

	     my $cell = cr2cell ( 4, 14); # $cell now "D14"
	     my $cell = cr2cell (28,  4); # $cell now "AB4"

       my ($col, $row) = cell2cr ($cell)
	   "cell2cr ()" converts traditional cell notation to a "(column, row)" pair (1 based):

	     my ($col, $row) = cell2cr ("D14"); # returns ( 4, 14)
	     my ($col, $row) = cell2cr ("AB4"); # returns (28,	4)

       my @row = row ($ref, $row)
       my @row = Spreadsheet::Read::row ($ss->[1], 3)
	   Get full row of formatted values (like "$ss->{A3} .. $ss->{G3}")

	   Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based.

	   "row ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

       my @row = cellrow ($ref, $row)
       my @row = Spreadsheet::Read::cellrow ($ss->[1], 3)
	   Get full row of unformatted values (like "$ss->{cell}[1][3] .. $ss->{cell}[7][3]")

	   Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based.

	   "cellrow ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

       my @rows = rows ($ref)
       my @rows = Spreadsheet::Read::rows ($ss->[1])
	   Convert "{cell}"'s "[column][row]" to a "[row][column]" list.

	   Note that the indexes in the returned list are 0-based, where the index in the "{cell}" entry is 1-based.

	   "rows ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

       parses ($format)
       Spreadsheet::Read::parses ("CSV")
	   "parses ()" returns Spreadsheet::Read's capability to parse the required format.

	   "parses ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

       my $rs_version = Version ()
       my $v = Spreadsheet::Read::Version ()
	   Returns the current version of Spreadsheet::Read.

	   "Version ()" is not imported by default, so either specify it in the use argument list, or call it fully qualified.

   Cell Attributes
       If the constructor was called with "attr" having a true value, effort is made to analyze and store field attributes like this:

	   { label  => "Sheet 1",
	     maxrow => 5,
	     maxcol => 2,
	     cell   => [ undef,
	       [ undef, 1 ],
	       [ undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, "Nugget" ],
	       ],
	     attr   => [ undef,
	       [ undef, {
		 type	 => "numeric",
		 fgcolor => "#ff0000",
		 bgcolor => undef,
		 font	 => "Arial",
		 size	 => undef,
		 format  => "## ##0.00",
		 halign  => "right",
		 valign  => "top",
		 uline	 => 0,
		 bold	 => 0,
		 italic  => 0,
		 wrap	 => 0,
		 merged  => 0,
		 hidden  => 0,
		 locked  => 0,
		 enc	 => "utf-8",
		 }, ]
	       [ undef, undef, undef, undef, undef, {
		 type	 => "text",
		 fgcolor => "#e2e2e2",
		 bgcolor => undef,
		 font	 => "Letter Gothic",
		 size	 => 15,
		 format  => undef,
		 halign  => "left",
		 valign  => "top",
		 uline	 => 0,
		 bold	 => 0,
		 italic  => 0,
		 wrap	 => 0,
		 merged  => 0,
		 hidden  => 0,
		 locked  => 0,
		 enc	 => "iso8859-1",
		 }, ]
	     A1     => 1,
	     B5     => "Nugget",
	     },

       This has now been partially implemented, mainly for Excel, as the other parsers do not (yet) support all of that. YMMV.

TODO

       Options
	   Module Options
	     New Spreadsheet::Read options are bound to happen. I'm thinking of an option that disables the reading of the data entirely to speed
	     up an index request (how many sheets/fields/columns). See "xlscat -i".

	   Parser options
	     Try to transparently support as many options as the encapsulated modules support regarding (un)formatted values, (date) formats,
	     hidden columns rows or fields etc. These could be implemented like "attr" above but names "meta", or just be new values in the "attr"
	     hashes.

       Other spreadsheet formats
	   I consider adding any spreadsheet interface that offers a usable API.

       Add an OO interface
	   Consider making the ref an object, though I currently don't see the big advantage (yet). Maybe I'll make it so that it is a hybrid
	   functional / OO interface.

SEE ALSO

       Text::CSV_XS, Text::CSV_PP
	 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Text-CSV_XS , http://search.cpan.org/dist/Text-CSV_PP , and http://search.cpan.org/dist/Text-CSV .

	 Text::CSV is a wrapper over Text::CSV_XS (the fast XS version) and/or Text::CSV_PP (the pure perl version)

       Spreadsheet::ParseExcel
	 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Spreadsheet-ParseExcel

       Spreadsheet::XLSX
	 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Spreadsheet-XLSX

       Spreadsheet::ReadSXC
	 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Spreadsheet-ReadSXC

       Spreadsheet::BasicRead
	 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Spreadsheet-BasicRead for xlscat likewise functionality (Excel only)

       Spreadsheet::ConvertAA
	 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Spreadsheet-ConvertAA for an alternative set of cell2cr () / cr2cell () pair

       Spreadsheet::Perl
	 http://search.cpan.org/dist/Spreadsheet-Perl offers a Pure Perl implementation of a spreadsheet engine. Users that want this format to be
	 supported in Spreadsheet::Read are hereby motivated to offer patches. It's not high on my TODO-list.

       xls2csv
	 http://search.cpan.org/dist/xls2csv offers an alternative for my "xlscat -c", in the xls2csv tool, but this tool focuses on character
	 encoding transparency, and requires some other modules.

AUTHOR

       H.Merijn Brand, <h.m.brand@xs4all.nl>

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

       Copyright (C) 2005-2010 H.Merijn Brand

       This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.

perl v5.10.1							    2010-10-15								 Read(3pm)