I don't know about Win32::OLE, but with Spreadsheet::ParseExcel, you have your choice of getting the (unformatted) "Val" or the (formatted) Value for each cell (and you'll want to choose the latter, though the date format you get will depend on how the spreadsheet was set up). Using the module's OO-style interface, it's a difference between a hash value and a method call:

#!/usr/bin/perl

use strict;
use warnings;
use Spreadsheet::ParseExcel;

my $Usage = "Usage: $0  filename.xls\n";
die $Usage unless ( @ARGV == 1 and -f $ARGV[0] );

my $xcl = Spreadsheet::ParseExcel::Workbook->Parse( $ARGV[0] );

for my $sheet ( @{$xcl->{Worksheet}} ) {
    printf( "Sheet: %s\n", $sheet->{Name} );
    for my $row ( $sheet->{MinRow} .. $sheet->{MaxRow} ) {
        for my $col ( $sheet->{MinCol} .. $sheet->{MaxCol} ) {
            my $cell = $sheet->{Cells}[$row][$col];
            printf( " row %s, col %s: unformatted= %s, formatted= %s\n
+",
                    $row, $col, $cell->{Val}, $cell->Value );
        }
    }
}
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