load excel spreadsheet to table variable?

[akiva_atwood]

I know how to create a doc, place an excel spreadsheet in the doc, and then refer to the cells of the table....

Is it possible to skip the "create" and "place" steps -- and do something like

myTable = new Table;

myTable = open("path to excel file");

myData=myTable.rows[2].cells[11].texts[0].contents;

[Daniel Sterchi]

Hi akiva_atwood

Short answer: no…

First you need to have a open document. Then you can place a spreadsheet which creates a table inside a text frame. Then you can get the data of a specific field.

A bit of code:

main();
exit();
function main() {
  // take the open document
  var myDoc = app.activeDocument;
  // take the first textframe in my example
  var myTextFrame = myDoc.textFrames[0];
  // take the first table of the first textframe. A table lives inside a textframe
  var myTable = myTextFrame.tables[0];
  // get the data from the cell (1,3)
  var myData = myTable.columns[1].cells[2].contents;
  // write the data to the console
  $.writeln(myData);
}

I hope this helps to answer your question

kind regards

Daniel

(from Switzerland)

[akiva_atwood]

Hi Daniel

I know how to do it that way -- I was hoping to avoid the create and place steps.

Thanks

Akiva

[TᴀW]

On Windows, it would be like this:

  var vb;
  vb = "\rSet myExcel = CreateObject(\"Excel.Application\")";
  vb += "\rDim s";
  vb += "\rSet objWorkbook = myExcel.Workbooks.Open(/*Path to Excel Doc*/)";
  vb += "\rSet objSheet = myExcel.ActiveWorkbook.WorkSheets(1)";
  vb += "\rs = objSheet.Cells(1, 2).Text";
  vb += "\robjWorkBook.close";
  vb += "\rreturnValue = s";
  result = app.doScript (vb, ScriptLanguage.VISUAL_BASIC);

This gives you the plain text of cell 1,2.

Ariel