Hi,

I want to import a Microsoft excel sheet to the linux and then read that file. I want to replace few colums from that sheet according to the date mentioned in one of the coloumn of that sheet itself.

Can any one guide me with the logic to do so with a bash script...

Thanks...

You haven't given enough information to give a complete answer, but I think bash is going to need quite a bit of help along the way.
Firstly, you need to specify where the Excel spreadsheet is. It might be in one of these situations:
1. On a SMB/CIFS/NFS shared directory on a running Windows host.
2. On a directory of a Windows host running a FTP/SFTP server.
3. On a Windows partition of the local host filesystem (ie. dual boot).
4. On a portable media such as CD, floppy, flash drive, etc.
5. Simply as a file already stored on the Linux filesystem.

Once this issue has been resolved, one can address how the importation might be done.

Having 'imported' the spreadsheet, one can then manipulate it with any of a number of perl modules, starting with 'Spreadsheet::ParseExcel', manpiulating the resulting data structures as necessary, and finally writing out a new version with 'Spreadsheet::WriteExcel'.

These things can be done using other tools, with bash as the wrapper script, but unlikely using strictly bash.

--- rod.