Closing the file within the loop makes sense. Closing the application within the loop doesn't make sense to me. If there's a reason, I'd be very interested in it.

Regards,

John Davies

I've narrowed the sample code down to a more minimally functional set. With any old .xlsx file in the existing work directory, this should demonstrate the conditions of problem I'm experiencing without going more indepth into the code.

This script - in the environment in question - leaves behind a stray process named "EXCEL.EXE" in task manager.

From what I have been able to glean from the documentation I've seen - the destructor is defined here new('Excel.Application','Quit')

use strict;
use Win32::OLE qw(in with);
use Win32::OLE::Const 'Microsoft Excel';
use Win32::OLE::Variant;
use Win32::OLE::NLS qw(:LOCALE :DATE);
use FindBin qw($Bin);
$Win32::OLE::Warn = 3;
my $Excel = Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application','Quit');
my $curpath = "$Bin/";
undef my $j;
 for $j (0 .. length($curpath)){
   if(substr($curpath,$j,1)eq '/'){substr($curpath,$j,1) = '\\';}
 }
undef my $listfile;
$listfile = "filelist.txt";
my $syscmd = "dir \/b *.xlsx > ".$listfile; 
system($syscmd);
close(STDERR);
open(STDERR, ">load_error_log.txt");
open(RDR0, $listfile);
undef my $listread;
while ($listread = <RDR0>){
    chomp($listread);
    my $ExcelFile = $curpath.$listread;
    print "*Loading $ExcelFile*\n";
    my $Book = $Excel->Workbooks->Open($ExcelFile) || die("Unable to o
+pen $ExcelFile ", Win32::OLE->LastError());
    $Book->Close(0);
    undef $Book;
}
$Excel->Quit();
undef $Excel;
close (RDR0);
close (STDERR);
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You don't tell us what you're really trying to do. It appears that you are trying, in this code, to read every file in a directory that has a certain extension (I use 2002 so I have a different extension in a variable) and print its name. I have based the following code, which works for me, on Re^5: Win32::OLE Excel search and replace commas.

use strict;
use warnings;
use Cwd;
use Win32::OLE;

my $ext = ".xls";

my $Excel=Win32::OLE->new('Excel.Application');
$Excel->{Visible}=1;
$Excel->{DisplayAlerts}=1;    #Set to 0 when the code is working, but 
+keep at 1 while debugging.

my $dir = getcwd;
$dir =~ s/\//\\\\/g;        #Sort out the slashes and backslashes
opendir(DIR, $dir) or die "can't opendir $dir: $!"; #Cookbook recipe 9
+.5
while (defined(my $file = readdir(DIR))) {
     if ((!-d $file) and (substr($file, -length($ext)) eq $ext)) {    
+#Someone WILL call a directory something.xls. I have the scars.
        my $Book = $Excel->Workbooks->Open("$dir\\\\$file") or die "Ca
+n't open file $dir\\\\$file"; 
        print $Book->FullName . "\n";
        $Book->Close;
    }
}
closedir(DIR);
$Excel->Quit;
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The output in my command window is:

Z:\Data\Perl>922394.pl
Z:\Data\Perl\WhichMonk.xls
Z:\Data\Perl>cd\excel\sudonkey

Z:\Excel\Sudonkey>\data\perl\922394.pl
Z:\Excel\Sudonkey\SuDonkey2.xls
Z:\Excel\Sudonkey\SuDonkey.xls
Z:\Excel\Sudonkey\SuDonkey1_0_3.xls
Z:\Excel\Sudonkey\InPlay.xls

Z:\Excel\Sudonkey>
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I am left with no orphan instance of Excel. It works on any directory. Please try this. If it leaves an orphan instance, then it's down to a 2007 parameter and without a copy, I can't help you further.

Regards,

John Davies

Absolutely with you on that one - I've tried placing the app quit statement within and outside the loop and the problem remains. If anyone has any helpful pointers toward the syntax for creating and calling a destructor that does sound like a promising option. I haven't worked much with OLE and the docs and tutorials I've uncovered have not proven to be very insightful.