Once you know how to open te excel late bound in a decent manner and to close it of again nicely you can do virtually do anything with it through VBA or VB, C++ and other languages for that matter.
Importing and exporting data can be done this way without paying for software, but it will consume time.
The basics, on the fly:
Option Explicit
Const WorkBookName = "TestThis.Xls"
Const ImportPath = "C:\Test\"
Const DataSheet = "ImportDataSheet"
Sub ExclHandler()
Dim Excl As Excel.Application
Dim Wb As Excel.Workbook
Dim Ws As Excel.Worksheet
Dim ExcelWasOpen As Boolean
Dim WorkBookFound As Boolean
'Get an instance of excel if it is open that one to save resources.
On Error GoTo NoExcelOpen
ExcelWasOpen = True
Set Excl = GetObject(, "Excel.Application")
On Error GoTo 0
'Search for the Workbook if Excel was already open (it might be)
If ExcelWasOpen Then
For Each Wb In Excl.Workbooks
If Wb.Name = WorkBookName Then
WorkBookFound = True
Exit For
End If
Next
If Not WorkBookFound Then
Set Wb = Excl.Workbooks.Open(ImportPath & WorkBookName)
End If
Else
Set Wb = Excl.Workbooks.Open(ImportPath & WorkBookName)
End If
Set Ws = Wb.Sheets(DataSheet)
'Do whatever you want read or write to it.
'make it look nice
'to prove my point write something
Ws.Cells(1, 1).Value = "Driesign.nl"
'and read it into a msgbox
MsgBox Ws.Cells(1, 1).Value, vbCritical, "Stupid Test"
'............
'............
'............
'............
'............
'finish by cleaning up
Set Ws = Nothing
If workbookwasopen Then
Wb.Save
Else
Wb.Close True, "Optional Alternative Filename.xls"
End If
Set Wb = Nothing
If Not ExcelWasOpen Then
Excl.Quit
End If
Set Excl = Nothing
Exit Sub
NoExcelOpen:
ExcelWasOpen = False
Set Excl = CreateObject("Excel.Application")
Resume Next
End Sub
Have fun with it.....