# Exporting Specific Cells of Many Workbooks into One using Mathematica

I currently have a large number of detailed files from which I would like to extract certain cells' information to make an Archive spreadsheet.

There are approximately 9 parameters of each spreadsheet I would like to import, which in principal could be copy/pasted individually. However, I have a huge number of spreadsheets to extract these parameters from, so I would like to specify to Mathematica to import (likely using Import) these parameters from each detailed file (say, named Run01.xlsx to Run0N.xlsx for N files), extract the parameters of interest (whose position doesn't change from file to file), and add (likely using Append) them to a seperate archive file (named Archive.xlsx in the same folder).

I understand how to write to/from Excel files directly by using MathematicaLink (3.5) for Excel, and that Mathematica alone can Import & Export Excel files directly. But, I don't know how to incorporate a command that specifies that the content to be written is to be imported from Run0N.xlsx for N from 1 to, say, 40, each of which is to then be Appended to the file Archive.xlsx (within the same folder, even).

Can anyone shed some light on this admittedly simple question?

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You can Import and Export xslx files, so it should be very simple to do. –  rcollyer May 22 '13 at 19:27
@rcollyer My confusion is in how to do it for many (40+ per run with many runs) times automatedly, rather than in importing / exporting between any two single Excel files. I agree, between any two it is very simple haha. Sorry for the ambiguity. –  Ghersic May 22 '13 at 19:39
I don't think there is any ambiguity between pulling data from one file to put in another, and pulling from several to put in another. The only catch would be to always append the new data, and that is straightforward. Try importing a file and see how the data is interpreted by Mathematica; you may see why I think this is true. –  rcollyer May 22 '13 at 20:01
I will do that, thank you. My remote connection to the home computer with Mathematica has dropped, I will try it in about 30 minutes when I've arrived home. –  Ghersic May 22 '13 at 20:12
@rcollyer I see what you mean about importing as a list of lists the Archive file, then appending the parameters of interest from another imported file as a new row. This does seem to be a cleaner method than using MathematicaLink for Excel. What I don't understand is how to tell it to do this automatedly, appending many rows to the imported "Archive", with a different Excel file corresponding to each new row (the position of the parameters of interest don't change between Excel files). I hope this is not a stupid question; I didn't think it was. –  Ghersic May 22 '13 at 21:05