Excel To Code

Converts some excel spreadsheets (.xlsx, not .xls) into C. This allows the excel spreadsheets to be run programatically, without excel, anywhere that compiles basic dependency free C code. This can be handy to allow excel to be used as the calculating engine behind websites (e.g., The DECC 2050 Pathways Calculator is powered by this 50+ page excel model).

Prepare

Make sure you have ruby 1.9.2 or later installed, a copy of git, and a basic C compiler

Install

gem install bundler # May need to use sudo
git clone https://github.com/tamc/excel_to_code.git
cd excel_to_code
bundle

Run

Can be run as a command line:

./bin/excel_to_c <excel_file_name>

… with several options:

./bin/excel_to_c --compile --run-tests --settable <name of input worksheet> --prune-except <name of output worksheet> <excel file name> 

… or as a ruby library, see the examples directory for ideas.

Know the limits

1. Not tested at all on Windows
2. INDIRECT and OFFSET formula must be convertable at runtime into a standard formula
3. Doesn't implement all functions (just the handful of functions with an R or C after their name in this list )
4. Implements the usual cell and range references but doesn't implement references that involve range unions and lists or references to external worksheets
5. Sometimes gives cells as being empty, when excel would give the cell as having a numeric value of zero