Thanks, but I'm not sure that does it The unicode_8859_7.pl scirpt specifies how one opens an ascii file. In my case the file I get the problematic cells is an excel file itself. I should add it displays fine with the Devel:ptkdb debugging/diagnostic module I use. I use 
$cellvalue2=encode("iso08859-7",$cellvalue2);

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it makes NO difference. I even tried
if($Cell->{Code} eq 'ucs2'){$cellvalue2=Encode::decode ('UCS-2BE',$cel
+lvalue2);

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which gave again junk(though more chinese-looking junk) I read these strings by
$oexcel=new Spreadsheet::ParseExcel;#version 0.32 from    #activestate
$oBook=$oexcel->Parse($myfile);
for my ($iSheet=0; $iSheet<$oBook->{SheetCount};$iSheet++;}
$oWkS=$oBook->{Worksehhet}[$iSheet];
for (my $iR=$oWkS=>{MinRow};defined $oWkS->{MaxRow|&& $iR <=$oWkS->{Ma
+xRow};$iR++;){

for(my $iC=$oWkS->{MinCol};defined $oWkS->{MaxCol &&$iC <$oWkS->{MaxCo
+l};
$iC++;
my $cellvalue2='';
my $oWkC=$oWkS->{Cells}[$iR][$iC];
if($oWk){$cellvalue2=$oWkC->Value; $cellvalue2=$oWkC->{'Val'} if ($cel
+lvalue2 eq 'GENERAL';}
#and it IS GENERAL
....

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Like I said above, it makes no difference if you try to post-process the $cellvalue2 with  encode("iso-8859-7",$cellvalue2);

In reply to Re^2: WriteExcel unicode question by demis
in thread WriteExcel unicode question by demis

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