That is correct. Now, there are further changes that can be made to Spreadsheet::ParseExcel. One is to remove a lot of font information. Another is to rewrite the objects using file-scoped parallel arrays and not hashes.

One thing that really helped my understanding of the module was to use Data::Dumper with a relatively small Excel file and see how the workbook was constructed.

Another memory-saving tip is to reduce the number of worksheets you're using at one time. By consolidating some sheets (easily done using VBA within the workbook), you can drop the memory requirements of Spreadsheet::ParseExcel by over 50%, in some cases.

Another option is to split up the data into a number of workbooks and work with one at a time.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.