How do you open Excel?

[Moneo]

My experience with comma delimited files goes back to Lotus. Then the concept was carried forward to Excel which supports Lotus.
Basically the comma delimeted file is a VEHICLE for getting data to or from an Excel spreadsheet. It is intended for converting data from/to Excel and another system. It is not intended to constantly be going back and forth, that is, it normally is used in one direction. For example:
1) You have data from another system which you want to incorporate or manipulate in Excel. This other system extracts the data from some file or database and produces a comma delimited file which can then be loaded into Excel.
2) You have data which was captured on an Excel spreadsheet which you need to incorporate into another system, like expense reports for example. Then you generate a comma delimited file from Excel and have a conversion program read this and update some file or database accordingly on another system.
*****

[TheBigBasicQ]

My experience with comma delimited files goes back to Lotus. Then the concept was carried forward to Excel which supports Lotus.
Basically the comma delimeted file is a VEHICLE for getting data to or from an Excel spreadsheet. It is intended for converting data from/to Excel and another system. It is not intended to constantly be going back and forth, that is, it normally is used in one direction. For example:
1) You have data from another system which you want to incorporate or manipulate in Excel. This other system extracts the data from some file or database and produces a comma delimited file which can then be loaded into Excel.
2) You have data which was captured on an Excel spreadsheet which you need to incorporate into another system, like expense reports for example. Then you generate a comma delimited file from Excel and have a conversion program read this and update some file or database accordingly on another system.
*****

So how do i convert my excel sheet to a comma delimited file? What if I have a comma in one of the fields? for example:

Code:

Item Name                      Code
xyz, abc                        156

What does the converter do then?

[Plasma]

As I said before:

A much simpler way would be to store the file as a CSV (comma delimited) file, which is plain text and easily readible. You can do this with Save As... in Excel.

And if there's a comma, the entry just has quotes:

Code:

Item Name,Code
"xyz, abc",156

[TheBigBasicQ]

Great

[Phydaux]

Ah... but excell is really clever... you could do something like

Code:

DIR >> null.txt

in MS-DOS. Then open the text file in Excell, and it would (with minor tweeking) be put into correct columns.

[TheBigBasicQ]

Ah... but excell is really clever... you could do something like

Code:

DIR >> null.txt

in MS-DOS. Then open the text file in Excell, and it would (with minor tweeking) be put into correct columns.

Ah, you mean we can replace a space by a comma 8)

[bmichannel]

Ok, I'm going to throw a spanner in the works now!
After all the notes above...and many thanks for that...

Someone has given me this entry to open Excel...which seems pretty simple...

CHDIR "C:\Docume~1\Admini~1\mydocu~1"
SHELL "start players.xls"

This works. It brings up the Excel file you want.

However, I don't know how to then change a specific cell and save and close the file. Anyone any ideas? Remember, I have a cell B3 which has the number 5 in it. I'm trying to change it to a number 6.

Thanks

[TheBigBasicQ]

Well, that will just open the file in EXCEL and you will not be actually modifying the file in anyway

[Moneo]

BMI,
I have a fundamental question. Where does your data file finally reside? That is, when you're finished updating it, where are you going to use it to produce reports or whatever, in an Excel file or in a file used by your Qbasic program?

You shouldn't have it both ways, it's madness. Either the Excel file is the master or the Qbasic file is the master.
If the Excel file is the master, you can modify the file directly in Excel, or you can modify the file via the Qbasic program as follows:
1) Generate a comma-delimited-file (CSV) from Excel.
2) Read the CSV in the Qbasic program, and update as required, respecting the CSV format.
3) Input the CSV file into Excel replacing the old version.
4) You now have an updated Excel file.

If the Qbasic file is the master, you can modify the file directly in Qbasic, or you can modify the file via Excel as follows:
1) If your Qbasic file is not in CSV format, convert it to CSV.
2) Read the CSV file into Excel.
3) Make modifications in Excel.
4) Generate a new CSV file out of Excel.
5) Read the CSV file via QBasic, and convert to another format other than CSV if required, and replace the old version of the file.
6) You now have an update file for your Qbasic program.

So, based on the above, what exactly are you trying to do?
*****

[na_th_an]

I'd suggest you to find Visual Basic, install it, and plug it in a nice OCX which manages Excel files automaticly. You have methods to do anything you like.