Looking for a tool for spreadsheet manipulation.

Steven W. Orr steveo at syslang.net
Wed Jan 19 12:17:47 EST 2011


On 1/19/2011 11:06 AM, Steven W. Orr wrote:
> Sometimes I get lucky here. ;-)
>
> I have this horrible spreadsheet that needs to be accessed by lots of people
> from all over the galaxy. Adding entries to the spreadsheet is painful because
> it's manual.
>
> What I'd like to do is to use a command line interface to add entries to cells
> instead of having to use Excel. Does such a beast exist?
>
> I'm thinking of some sort of a command that either takes command args or a
> configuration file to accomplish what I want. For example:
>
> I have a cell that says "FooBar", and I want to add stuff to the next two
> cells to the right of it. For example, an awk-like syntax to accomplish this
> might look like:
>
> cmd '/Foobar/ {set(row, col+1, abc); set(row, col+2, 123)}' fn.xls
>
> What I really want to do is somewhat more involved, but this is a great jump
> point to get me started. Anyone have any ideas?
>
> TIA
>

I'm getting some good feedback, including letting me know what info I did not 
provide.

The deal is that we are releasing software whose src code is properly tagged 
(or labeled). There are *lots* of labels. The binaries are constructed and 
released into a common area. Each set of binaries might be composed of src 
rpms, binary rpms, tarballs, iso images, plus other things. Multiple binary 
files can have an integer called a Build Solution and a release version 
number. The collection of all these files go into a unique Staging Area where 
users get the files. There is currently a spreadsheet which contains columns 
of content description, version numbers and Build Solution numbers. Different 
people contribute to different sections of the spreadsheet. There might be a 
linux section, one for winbloze, plus other more specific target platforms. 
Right now, everyone is using Excel from windows to add their entries. I don't 
actually know if using anything else (OOO, gnumeric, etc,) would cause 
unintended ripples to the files.

All the devel work that I deal with is done from linux, but I get there mostly 
(currently) using W7, putty and cygwin X server.

Since I don't know ruby, the suggestion to try a python interface sounds 
attractive.

If someone wanted to send me some python example code (hint hint) I'd really 
love to look it over.

Does this help with any further suggestions?

-- 
Time flies like the wind. Fruit flies like a banana. Stranger things have  .0.
happened but none stranger than this. Does your driver's license say Organ ..0
Donor?Black holes are where God divided by zero. Listen to me! We are all- 000
individuals! What if this weren't a hypothetical question?
steveo at syslang.net


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