I want to set the width of one column to be the same width as the cell in another column where I have added text and then used AutoFit to set the set the cell width.
Therefore the steps are:
1. Add the text to the 1st cell;
2. Use AutoFit on the 2nd cell;
3. Measure the width of the 1st cell ;
4. Set the 2nd column to the width of the 1st cell;
5. Measure the width of the 2nd column.;

I have done this in the Perl below and as the printout shows the 1st cell’s width is 108 and the 2nd column is 570.75.
This is an increase of 5.285.
I also set another column to 60. The measured width is 318.75.
This is an increase of 5.3125.

Can anyone explain:
1. Why this increase is happening;
2. I can reliably get exactly what I want?
use OLE;
use Win32::OLE::Const "Microsoft Excel";
use strict "vars";
my ($excel, $workbook, $sheet);   
my ($w1, $w2, $w3, $w4);
#___ DEFINE EXCEL
$excel = CreateObject OLE "Excel.Application";
#___ MAKE EXCEL VISIBLE
$excel -> {Visible} = 1;
#___ ADD NEW WORKBOOK
$workbook = $excel    -> Workbooks -> Add;
$sheet    = $workbook -> Worksheets("Sheet1");
$sheet                -> Activate;
# find initial width of B4
$w1 = $sheet->Range("B4")->Width;
# add text to B4 and autofit the cell
$sheet -> Range("B4") -> {Value} = "The cat sat on the mat";
$sheet -> Range("B4") -> Columns -> {AutoFit} = "True";
# find new width of B4
$w2 = $sheet->Range("B4")->Width;
# set column D to cell width found for cell F4
$sheet  -> Range("D4") -> {ColumnWidth} = $w2;
# find width of column D
$w3 = $sheet->Range("D4")->Width;
# set column F to 60
$sheet  -> Range("F4") -> {ColumnWidth} = 60;
# find width of column F
$w4 = $sheet->Range("F4")->Width;
print "F4 width 1<$w1> 2 <$w2> H4 width <$w3> F4 width <$w4>\n";

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In reply to Problems setting Excel cell width by merrymonk

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