On 6/5/06, Parvinder Ghotra <ghotrapa / yahoo.com> wrote:
> Hi,
> I'm brand new to Ruby.
> Can somebody share their expertise on how to open and read data from
> excel using ruby?
> Thanks in advance.

A very rudimentary version that shows the logic:

require 'win23ole'

        application = WIN32OLE.new('Excel.Application')
        worksheet
=application.Workbooks.Open(excelFileName).Worksheets(workSheetName)
        worksheet.Activate

        contLoop = true           # Dummy counter for the loop

        while contLoop do
          colVal = worksheet.Cells(row, column).Value

          if (colVal) then
            # This field is not NIL, this means that this row contains a entry
            # Get the SecurityObject corresponding to the cusip, and
get the coupon
            do processing ....
          else
            # This signifies the end - no cash column value, no short
name value.
            # End the loop
            contLoop = false
          end
          # go to the next Row
          row +=  1
        end

        # we are done
        application.Workbooks.Close



> And also any suggestions on where/how to learn Ruby would be very
> helpful and appreciated.
>

Pickaxe is a great book. You can find an online version at
http://www.ruby-doc.org/docs/ProgrammingRuby/html/index.html

All the best,
-Madan.