Thank You, great example! From the hints here I wrote this short solution (using the non-simple ParseExcel) : 
# fill in merged cells
  my $ma = $page->{sheet}->{MergedArea};
  for my $a ( @$ma ) {
   my ( $tr, $lc, $br, $rc ) = @$a;
# propogate values top left to bottom right
  my $p = $page->{sheet}->{Cells}->[$tr]->[$lc]->{Val};
  for ( my $row=$tr; $row<=$br; $row++ ) {
   for ( my $col=$lc; $col<=$rc; $col++ ) {
    $page->{sheet}->{Cells}->[$row]->[$col]->{Val}=$p;
   }
  }
} # for $a

[download]
Seems to do the trick! I've seen some cases where the cell hash also has another Val which is something like _Val. I was never sure why those were there but I've seen examples where it contains the actual val. So in that case, $p may have to be assigned differently... Thanks all. I was floundering until you pointed out all the "merged" stuff. Seems like an odd term- I would have thought they'd use "span" not "merge"..

In reply to Re^2: rowspan vals in Excel SS are not interpreted by ParseExcel::Simple by misterperl
in thread rowspan vals in Excel SS are not interpreted by ParseExcel::Simple by misterperl

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