What is confusing for me is that both the 6 Mega file and the 100 Mega file are Microsoft office documents that are not ASCAII encoded.... So why is one so much larger than the other?

My guess is that the smaller contains just the results, whereas the the larger contains the formulae used to derive those results. But that is only a guess.

Also, they have the same amount of lines

Using wc -l on binary files is not useful. It only tells you how many bytes with the value 13 decimal it contains. But those bytes are probably not newlines but rather just bytes within packed binary values that happen to look like newlines.

I would have thought your simplest option would be to open each of the files using Excel (or other program that can read .xls files) and inspect what they each contain.

With the rise and rise of 'Social' network sites: 'Computers are making people easier to use everyday'
Examine what is said, not who speaks -- Silence betokens consent -- Love the truth but pardon error.
"Science is about questioning the status quo. Questioning authority".
In the absence of evidence, opinion is indistinguishable from prejudice.

The start of some sanity?

In reply to Re^3: Spreadsheet::WriteExcel large files (text versus binary format) by BrowserUk
in thread Spreadsheet::WriteExcel large files by mrguy123

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