Best Ruby library for Excel files

Question

What is the best Ruby library for dealing with Excel spreadsheets?

I found spreadsheet-gem but I didn't find it to be as good as PHPExcel - a library I used to use when I was a PHP developer.

Please help.
Thanks.

Answer 1

spreadsheet looks good

Answer 2

I think roo is the best gem you can get at this time. It's not almighty but might be helpful.

Answer 3

win32ole

There are some quirks, but I've been able to do anything I've wanted with excel spreadsheets.

excel = WIN32OLE.new('Excel.Application')
excel.visible = true

workbook = excel.workbooks.open('myspreadsheet.xls')
worksheet = workbook.worksheets("Sheet1")
worksheet.Activate

somevalue = worksheet.Cells(row, column).Value
worksheet.Cells(row, column).Value = some_other_value

I've yet to find great documentation but a good rule of thumb is between .methods.sort and doing something as an excel macro recording first you can figure a lot of stuff out.

Good luck.

Answer 4

I think FasterCSV is also worth to be mentioned, although I don´t know if it can handle .xls files directly. It´s quite easy to use.

sudo gem install fastercsv