At some point in their career, a Linux developer or system administrator is going to find themselves having to generate some sort of Excel spreadsheet, usually to satisfy the whims of an IT-illiterate accountant, where a CSV or ODS file won't suffice. In such situations, the perl
Spreadsheet::WriteExcel module can be a lifesaver - I've used it myself, and it works well, although has a bit of a learning curve. Here's a
guide for it, from Linux Journal.