I've used Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Stream instead of Spreadsheet::ParseExcel and it uses 1.0GB memory after parsing an xls-file with a single worksheet and 64772 rows and 120 columns. This is before I go through the parsed worksheets and rows.
Opening this in Excel (2007) seems to use only 230MB.
So even with this module, reading a somewhat large Excel file uses excessively large amounts of memory. Edit: The xls-file is 122MB. 
print("Before creating new Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Stream:\n" . `free
+ -m`);
    my $ExcelParser = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Stream->new($FileName);
print("After creating new Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Stream:\n" . `free 
+-m`);

[download]
results in 
Before creating new Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Stream:
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cac
+hed
Mem:          3011       1250       1761          0          2        
+177
-/+ buffers/cache:       1071       1940
Swap:          956        177        779
After creating new Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Stream:
             total       used       free     shared    buffers     cac
+hed
Mem:          3011       2257        753          0          2        
+177
-/+ buffers/cache:       2077        933
Swap:          956        177        779

[download]

In reply to Re^4: Reducing the memory usage of Spreadsheet::ParseExcel by Neighbour
in thread Reducing the memory usage of Spreadsheet::ParseExcel by cibien

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