Q:

What do I use to display CSV data as a chart?

I have a set of data stored in text files, which I have now via Perl put into a CSV file. The data in question now needs to be displayed in a chart.
What suggestions do you have for doing this? XML was suggested, but XML can't put the data into a chart itself.
Ideally what would happen is: the data would be decoded from the text file, put into an Excel spreadsheet and displayed as a chart, all with one bit of code, as there are many of these text files with data in them.
Perl, XML, C, C++, C# and VB are all available to use.

A:

Spreadsheet::WriteExcel is an excellent CPAN module for creating Excel files in Perl.
In particular take a look at Spreadsheet::WriteExcel::Chart which allows you to create charts within the excel file.

A:

With Perl, you can use the Win32::OLE module to automate placing the data in an Excel spreadsheet and displaying it in a chart.
You will need to be familiar with the OLE library though in order to understand what methods/properties to call and set.

