= writeexcel

Write to a cross-platform Excel binary file.

== Recent Major Changes

0.3.0
* Chart support(Area, Bar, Column, Line, Pie, Scatter, Stock).
* Document added. See rdoc in your installed gem directory.
* Change Class name from 'Spreadsheet::WriteExcel' to 'WriteExcel'.
* many bug fix.

== Description

This library is converted from  Spreadsheet::WriteExcel module of Perl.
http://search.cpan.org/~jmcnamara/Spreadsheet-WriteExcel-2.37/

Some examples written in perl was successfully converted to Ruby. But
this library written in Ruby has many bugs, I think.

Original description is below:

    The Spreadsheet::WriteExcel module can be used to create a cross-
    platform Excel binary file. Multiple worksheets can be added to a
    workbook and formatting can be applied to cells. Text, numbers,
    formulas, hyperlinks and images can be written to the cells.

    TThe Excel file produced by this module is compatible with 97,
    2000, 2002, 2003 and 2007.

    The module will work on the majority of Windows, UNIX and
    Macintosh platforms. Generated files are also compatible with the
    spreadsheet applications Gnumeric and OpenOffice.org.

    This module cannot be used to read an Excel file.

== Usage

See rdoc's WriteExcel class document.

Example Code:

    require 'writeexcel'

    # Create a new Excel Workbook
    workbook = WriteExcel.new('ruby.xls')

    # Add worksheet(s)
    worksheet  = workbook.add_worksheet
    worksheet2 = workbook.add_worksheet

    # Add and define a format
    format = workbook.add_format
    format.set_bold
    format.set_color('red')
    format.set_align('right')

    # write a formatted and unformatted string.
    worksheet.write(1, 1, 'Hi Excel.', format)  # cell B2
    worksheet.write(2, 1, 'Hi Excel.')          # cell B3

    # write a number and formula using A1 notation
    worksheet.write('B4', 3.14159)
    worksheet.write('B5', '=SIN(B4/4)')

    # write to file
    workbook.close

== Difference with Perl module

* WriteExcel.new()
  * accept default format parameter such as new('foo.xls', :font => 'Roman', :size => 12)
* Worksheet.write(row, col, token, format)
  * if token.kind_of?(Numeric) then call write_number, if token.kind_of?(String) then not call write_number().
* Worksheet.keep_leading_zeros()
  * ignore. if write 0001, use string such as write(1,2, '0001')
* and ......

== Caution

This library can handle multibyte character written in utf8. I tested in Japanese,
and it looks work well. But, in this version, utf8 or not is recognized
by matching non-ascii characters because ruby 1.8 can not recognize character code
correctly.

== Dependencies

* ruby 1.8

== Author

Original was written in Perl by John McNamara (jmcnamara@cpan.org).

Convert to ruby by Hideo Nakamura (cxn03651@msj.biglobe.ne.jp)
Copyright (c) 2009-2010 Hideo NAKAMURA. See LICENSE for details.

== License

same as Ruby.

== Note on Patches/Pull Requests
 
* Fork the project.
* Make your feature addition or bug fix.
* Add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a
  future version unintentionally.
* Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history.
  (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)
* Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.