• http://www.google.com/search?q=cpan+excel+read
• http://www.google.com/search?q=cpan+csv+write

In Re^3: Win32::OLE Excel search and replace commas, I show how to generate csv files from an existing Excel file, but this requires a machine with Excel. You may have to read the whole thread to follow all my comments, and since the thread isn't really what you're after, I suggest you start by looking at the code and raise any issues that you don't understand. Of course, if you can't run Excel, I'm wasting your time.

Regards,

John Davies

Spreadsheet::Read comes with xlscat and xls2csv.

$ xlscat -c file.xls > file.csv
$ xls2csv file.xls
[download]

xlscat and xls2csv are the tools that I would use and recommend.

--
John.

Update: Use the Win32::OLE module.