Excel file and program structure

I need to know for a school project how Excel work. Precisely I need to know what kind of structure is behind an Excel file and how the Excel program work with this f开发者_如何转开发ile.

I know Excel is a Microsoft propriety and it' s not Open Source so I know I can' t find too much on this argument... But everything that can help me to understand how excel work it' s useful.

If I could not find something about Excel I will try to take a look at Open Office or Open Document format. So even some information about this will be real useful.

Thanks to all

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You can find details of the MS Office BIFF file formats here in the microsoft.com library, while the Office Open XML format is published here on the ECMA site and here in the microsoft.com library.

You can find specifications for the OpenDocument format used by Open Office on the OASIS site

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It is simpler than you may think.

An excel file is just a zip file of multiple XML documents. Each XML document corresponds to one spreadsheet in the Excel file.

You will find the XML sheets at xl\worksheets inside the zip folder.

You can scripting reading and writing to it.