For simple read/write operations, the ODBC way (using either the free or the Pro version of f90SQL) will work fine. Keep in mind, however, that ODBC sees your spreadsheet as another database table, so things like formatting, formulas, etc. are not available. Also the ODBC driver for excel has some limitation for writing (mainly it cannot delete spreadsheet rows). Still, using ODBC has advantages, it is fast and you don't need to have excel installed in the machine where your application is running.
The greatest level of flexibility and access can be achieved through the ActiveX/COM interface of excel (i.e. excel's automation interface). There are no limits here on what you can do with the spreadsheet. The main disadvantage is, however, that the machine where you Fortran application runs must also have excel installed, which may or may not be an issue in your case.
Our web site has examples of how to access excel spreadsheets using each of these paths. Check
http://www.canaimasoft.com/f90sql/Examples/Examples.htm and
http://www.canaimasoft.com/f90VB/Examples/Examples.htm (this last one uses another of our products called f90VB, which makes using ActiveX/COM from Fortran much easier than tapping into the direct Win-APIs).
Regards,
Marco Garcia
Canaima Software, Inc.
www.canaimasoft.com
