[Rd] xlsReadWrite Pro and embedding objects and files in Excel worksheets

James W. MacDonald jmacdon at med.umich.edu
Thu Feb 8 14:15:10 CET 2007


Have you looked at RDCOMClient? I would imagine you could do what you 
want with this package.

http://www.omegahat.org/RDCOMClient/

Best,

Jim

Hin-Tak Leung wrote:
> I don't know of any native xls read/write facility in R, either
> in core or as add-ons (I could be wrong), but if you want some source 
> code to scavenge on to build some R package out of it, there are two
> perl modules, Spreadsheet::ParseExcel and Spreadsheet::WriteExcel
> which are small enough to "read from front cover to back cover",
> so to speak, might be useful for reference and steal code from.
> 
> The other open-source packages which can read/write excel files
> are gnumeric and openoffice and probably too big to find one's way 
> around the source code to steal there :-).
> 
> Good luck.
> 
> HTL
> 
> Mark W Kimpel wrote:
> 
>>Hans-Peter and other R developers,
>>
>>How are you? Have you made any progess with embedding Url's in Excel?
>>
>>Well, I have been busy thinking of more things for you to do;)
>>
>>My colleagues in the lab are not R literate, and some are barely 
>>computer literate, so I give them everything in Excel workbooks. I have 
>>gradually evolved a system such that these workbooks have become 
>>compendia of my data, output, and methods. That, in fact, is why I 
>>bought the Pro version of xlsReadWritePro. I have been saving graphics 
>>as PDF files, then inserting them as object in Excel sheets.
>>
>>What I would like to be able to do is to embed objects (files) in sheets 
>>of a workbook directly from within R. I would also like to be able to 
>>save my current R workspace as an object embedded in a sheet so that in 
>>the future, if packages change, I could go back and recreate the 
>>analysis. I do not need to be able to manuipulate files that R has not 
>>created, like a PDF file from another user. I would, however, like to be 
>>able to save my graphics as PDF files inside a worksheet, even if it 
>>meant creating a  temp file or something.
>>
>>Before people begin talking about how MySQL or some other database could 
>>handle all that archiving, let me say that that is not what my 
>>colleagues want. They want a nice Excel file that they can take home on 
>>there laptops. One thing I like about worksheets is that they themselves 
>>can contain many embedded files, so it keeps our virtual desks neater 
>>and less confusing.
>>
>>Hans, if you could do this, it would be of tremendous benefit to me and 
>>hopefully a lot of people. R developers tend to think that all 
>>scientists are running Linux on 64-bit computers, but most biomedical 
>>researches still store date in Excel files. This won't solve everybody's 
>>needs, but it could be a start.
>>
>>Well, let me know what you think. I am cc'ing R-devel to see if any of 
>>those guys have ideas as well.
>>
>>Thanks,
>>Mark
>>
>>
>>
> 
> 
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-- 
James W. MacDonald, M.S.
Biostatistician
Affymetrix and cDNA Microarray Core
University of Michigan Cancer Center
1500 E. Medical Center Drive
7410 CCGC
Ann Arbor MI 48109
734-647-5623


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