# Must MS-Excel be installed on the machine to ONLY read an MS **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [February 13, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/must-ms-excel-be-installed-on-the-machine-to-only-read-an-ms/160274 "2009-02-13T16:40:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![dasch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@dasch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dasch)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:40pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/must-ms-excel-be-installed-on-the-machine-to-only-read-an-ms/160274/1 "2009-02-13T16:40:39Z")
Must MS-Excel be installed on the machine to ONLY read an MS-Excel worksheet file (e.g. TEST.XLS) with Ruby (using Ruby’s win32ole library)? ---
**Author:** ![dasch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@dasch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dasch)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:49pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/must-ms-excel-be-installed-on-the-machine-to-only-read-an-ms/160274/2 "2009-02-13T16:49:34Z")
Daniel Summars wrote: > Must MS-Excel be installed on the machine to ONLY read an MS-Excel > worksheet file (e.g. TEST.XLS) with Ruby (using Ruby’s win32ole > library)? Yes. Win32OLE works with the host app, in this case Excel. You probably want a COM library that can read/write excel spreadsheets directly. I think there are free ones out there but it depends on what features and excel version support you need. ---
**Author:** ![dasch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@dasch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dasch)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/must-ms-excel-be-installed-on-the-machine-to-only-read-an-ms/160274/3 "2009-02-13T16:59:49Z")
On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 4:48 PM, Mario G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > Daniel Summars wrote: > > > Must MS-Excel be installed on the machine to ONLY read an MS-Excel > > worksheet file (e.g. TEST.XLS) with Ruby (using Ruby’s win32ole > > library)? > > Yes. Win32OLE works with the host app, in this case Excel. You probably > want a COM library that can read/write excel spreadsheets directly. I > think there are free ones out there but it depends on what features and > excel version support you need. ...or you can use the Spreadsheet gem: [http://spreadsheet.rubyforge.org](http://spreadsheet.rubyforge.org) $\> gem install spreadsheet hth Hannes ---
**Author:** ![dasch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/d/b2d939/32.png) [@dasch](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/dasch)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2009, 5:13pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/must-ms-excel-be-installed-on-the-machine-to-only-read-an-ms/160274/4 "2009-02-13T17:13:22Z")
Hannes W. wrote: > On Fri, Feb 13, 2009 at 4:48 PM, Mario G. [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) > wrote: > > > Daniel Summars wrote: > > > > > Must MS-Excel be installed on the machine to ONLY read an MS-Excel > > > worksheet file (e.g. TEST.XLS) with Ruby (using Ruby’s win32ole > > > library)? > > > > Yes. Win32OLE works with the host app, in this case Excel. You probably > > want a COM library that can read/write excel spreadsheets directly. I > > think there are free ones out there but it depends on what features and > > excel version support you need. > > ...or you can use the Spreadsheet gem: > > [http://spreadsheet.rubyforge.org](http://spreadsheet.rubyforge.org) > > $\> gem install spreadsheet > > hth > Hannes Hannes W. and Mario Gutierre, Thank you both. Both answers are very helpful. I’m also thinking it would make a lot of sense too if the provider of the spreadsheets simply saved them to CSV files too. Then we probably really don’t need MS-Excel at all. Thanks again!