[plug] Slightly OT: library to read/write Excel data under Linux?

[Denis Brown]

Many thanks to the responders.  Problem was to discover and flag rouge date 
formats in a very large Excel spreadsheet.  The suggestions included trying 
to save the sheet and/or column(s) in differing formats, writing macros in 
Excel's VB or in StarOffice, as well as looking into Delphi and 
gnumeric.  Freshmeat and Google searches unproductive in terms of C-library 
routines to read Excel formats.  Gnumeric routines may be extractable and 
usable.

The various saving options were ineffective in that Excel seemed tolerant 
of multiple date formats in a given column.  Will explore Delphi and 
gnumeric in the hope that some low-level cell examination might reveal the 
reason.  Will also explore the macro angle although tolerance to differing 
formats appears to make this less attractive.  SO's StarBasic may be of 
help, though.

Thanks for the suggestions,
Denis