Using cell_handler spreadsheetparse excel for multiple files

[reaper9187]

Hi Everyone,

I'm currently developing an app that will be used to parse large excel files. I have developed code without using cell handler and as expected , it takes a long time to load these files into memory before parsing it . I have read basic codes regarding the use of cell_handler .. but somehow m not able to get it completely... here's a part of my code that i was writing using the cell handler:

    #!/usr/bin/perl -w

    use strict;
    use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel;
   
    my $parser = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel->new(
        CellHandler => \&cell_handler,
        NotSetCell  => 1
    );

    my $workbook1 = $parser->parse('A.xls');
    my $workbook2 = $parser->parse('B.xls');


    my $sheetone = $workbook1->Worksheet(0); 
    my $sheettwo = $workbook2->Worksheet(1) ;
    
    sub cell_handler {

        my $workbook    = $_[0];
        my $sheet_index = $_[1];
        my $row         = $_[2];
        my $col         = $_[3];
        my $cell        = $_[4];
       
        # Do something useful with the formatted cell value
    
        print $sheetone->get_cell($row,$col)->value(),"\n";
     print $sheettwo->get_cell($row,$col)->value(),"\n";

    }

It isnt working obviously .. please help ...

[tobyink]

print $sheetone->get_cell($row,$col)->value(),"\n";
print $sheettwo->get_cell($row,$col)->value(),"\n";

While $sheetone is being processed, $sheettwo is apparently not yet defined. So what exactly would you expect these two lines to be doing?

[reaper9187]

Hi .. thanks for replying .. I'm actually trying to parse them simultaneously(for comparing)... how do i get around this problem ??

[roboticus]

reaper9187:

That depends on your (unstated) requirements: If you truly need to have the values in sheet1 and sheet2 handled at the same time, then you'll have to make a copy of the data while you process sheet 1 so you can have the data when you get around to sheet 2. Something like:

my @TEMP;

sub cell_handler {
        my $workbook    = $_[0];
        my $sheet_index = $_[1];
        my $row         = $_[2];
        my $col         = $_[3];
        my $cell        = $_[4];

        if ($sheet_index == 1) {
            $TEMP[$row][$col] = $cell;
        }
        elsif ($sheet_index == 2) {
            print $TEMP[$row][$col]->value(),"\n";
            print $cell->value(),"\n";
        }
}

*However*, this relies on the parser seeing all the cells in sheet 1 before seeing sheet 2. (I don't know if that's always going to happen or not.) You could expand this code to store away *all* values and process them afterwards, but then you wouldn't need a cell_handler function, either, as you could loop over the data after the sheets are parsed.

If the parsing order isn't guaranteed, you'll have to figure out how you would do it manually if someone were handing you cells at random, and write the code to do it that way. (You might have noticed a tagline by one of our monks to that effect.)

...roboticus

When your only tool is a hammer, all problems look like your thumb.