# Streaming Spreadsheet in Ruby **URL:** \ **Category:** Ruby\ **Created:** [November 22, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949 "2006-11-22T19:17:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 7:17pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/1 "2006-11-22T19:17:29Z")
(This posting can be ignored unless you live-or-die by a \*nix command line.) ``` http://rubyforge.org/projects/sss/ ``` On the other hand, have you ever wanted to do some quick math on a CSV without waiting to launch Excel or Gnumeric? (Or you’re logged in remotely.) Maybe you’d like to print the average timestamp across all lines in a log file? Or you might wish “cut” split columns with a regexp, not just a delimiter? I just GPL’ed a project of mine for doing spreadsheet style calculations on the command line. It’s probably easiest to explain with an example. Say you have a sample file called “data.csv”, which looks like this: ``` Year,Change,TOTAL 2001,34.5,100.1 2002,36.6,101.13 2003,-11,90.5 2004,0,95 ``` And then you call the Streaming Spreadsheet like so: ``` $ cat data.csv | sss 'b=sum(b)' 'c=sd(c)' 'c1="full total"' ``` You’ll get this on standard out: ``` Year Change full total 2001 34.5 100.1 2002 36.6 101.13 2003 -11 90.5 2004 0 95 60.1 4.91642400531117 ``` Note that “cell” C1 has been changed, and those last two lines added with the sum of the B column, and the standard deviation of the C. Since it’s really just a tarted up “eval,” more complicated stuff also works: ``` $ cat data.csv |sss 'd=(123**2.3).to_i' ``` On standard out: ``` Year Change TOTAL 2001 34.5 100.1 2002 36.6 101.13 2003 -11 90.5 2004 0 95 64088 ``` The script is a moderately-clever 350 lines of Ruby (IMHO). For instance, it takes advantage of a quirk in parsing this sort of thing: ``` eval("b32:c35") ``` This string of code ends up trying to call a method named “b32” with one argument, the symbol “:c35”. Perfect for returning a range of cells via “def method\_missing()”! I hope it’s useful for someone else right now, but the project is very much still in beta. ``` http://rubyforge.org/projects/sss/ ``` ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 11:52pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/2 "2006-11-22T23:52:08Z")
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid writes: > You’ll get this on standard out: > > ``` > Year Change full total > 2001 34.5 100.1 > 2002 36.6 101.13 > 2003 -11 90.5 > 2004 0 95 > 60.1 > 4.91642400531117 > > ``` Looks like a case for awk to me… ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 22, 2006, 11:58pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/3 "2006-11-22T23:58:09Z")
On Thu, 23 Nov 2006 removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > 2004 0 95 > On standard out: > > eval(“b32:c35”) > > This string of code ends up trying to call a method named “b32” with > one argument, the symbol “:c35”. Perfect for returning a range of cells > via “def method\_missing()”! > > I hope it’s useful for someone else right now, but the project is very > much still in beta. > > ``` > http://rubyforge.org/projects/sss/ > > ``` very cool! i’ve done similar things many times, i’ll give it a whirl today! -a ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 12:26am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/4 "2006-11-23T00:26:13Z")
Do you really want to learn Awk’s esoterica, in 2006? It doesn’t do aggregation well (SUM, MEAN), and “we know Ruby already.” ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 23, 2006, 3:44am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/5 "2006-11-23T03:44:34Z")
removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: > (This posting can be ignored unless you live-or-die by a \*nix command > line.) 🙂 > ``` > http://rubyforge.org/projects/sss/ > > ``` Neat. One of my first ruby programs was a port of a perl program of mine that was sort of like this, but without builtin aggregation. The eval(“b32:c35”) part is clever! ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 1:08am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/6 "2006-11-24T01:08:20Z")
On 11/22/06, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote: > (This posting can be ignored unless you live-or-die by a \*nix command > line.) Ben, this is neat. You might get a lot of implementation details for free by building this atop Ruport. But the simplicity is pretty awesome. Cool stuff! ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:28am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/7 "2006-11-24T03:28:31Z")
On Fri, Nov 24, 2006 at 04:05:38AM +0900, removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid wrote: } Do you really want to learn Awk’s esoterica, in 2006? It doesn’t do } aggregation well (SUM, MEAN), and “we know Ruby already.” } } David K. wrote: […] } \> Looks like a case for awk to me… } \> } \> – } \> David K., Kriemhildstr. 15, 44793 Bochum I’ve known awk for much longer than Ruby had existed. It is excellent for line-based, field-based data manipulation. It feels a lot like C, with a few other niceties (like associative arrays). The point here is that you use the right tool for the job. For this job, awk is decidedly the right job. –Greg ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:52am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/8 "2006-11-24T03:52:35Z")
Gregory S. wrote: > I used “awk” when it was the only “scripting language” available to me. As soon as I got my hands on Perl, however, I relished at the thought of getting rid of a mess composed of a bunch of “the right tools for the right jobs” – ksh, awk, sed, cat, pipes, etc. That whole programming style was a great one when it was new, and when there wasn’t anything better. But once there was _one_ tool – Perl – that did all the jobs and looked like a _real_ Algol-like programming language, had arrays and hashes, there was no way I was going back. And now that there’s Ruby, I don’t really even want to go back to Perl. – M. Edward (Ed) Borasky, FBG, AB, PTA, PGS, MS, MNLP, NST, ACMC(P) [http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/](http://borasky-research.blogspot.com/) If God had meant for carrots to be eaten cooked, He would have given rabbits fire. ---
**Author:** ![unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/u/4bbf92/32.png) [@unknown](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/unknown)\ **Post date:** [November 24, 2006, 3:58am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/streaming-spreadsheet-in-ruby/76949/9 "2006-11-24T03:58:10Z")
> Looks like a case for awk to me… > > The point here is that you use the right tool for the job. For > this job, awk is decidedly the right job. Ruby is beauty. If you prefer awk, stick to it. But if others want to use Ruby, let them use Ruby.