An example that uses the Osheet::Cell rowspan attribute

Gemfile

source "http://rubygems.org"

gem 'osheet',
  :git => 'git://github.com/jbgo/osheet.git',
  :branch => 'cell-index'

rowspan.rb

require 'rubygems'
require 'bundler/setup'
Bundler.setup
Bundler.require

# Generates a spreadsheet with rowspans like this:
#
# |---|---|---|
# | a | b | e |
# |---|---|---|
# |   | c |   |
# |   |---|   |
# |   | d |   |
# |---|---|---|
# | f |   | h |
# |---|   |---|
# | g |   |   |
# |---|---|---|
# |   | i | k |
# |   |---|---|
# |   | j | l |
# |---|---|---|

data_rows = [
  [ [:a],     [:b, :c, :d], [:e]     ],
  [ [:f, :g], [],           [:h]     ],
  [ [],       [:i, :j],     [:k, :l] ]
]

puts "building workbook..."

def log(col, row, message)
  puts "(row: #{row}, col: #{col}) -- #{message}"
end

ws = Osheet::Workbook.new do
  worksheet do
    name "nil"

    data_rows.each do |aggregate_row|
      max_rows = aggregate_row.max{ |a, b| a.length <=> b.length }.length
      max_rows.times do |row_num|
        row do
          aggregate_row.each_with_index do |column_data, i|
            if column_data.nil?
              log(row_num, i, nil)
              next
            else
              value = column_data.shift
              if value
                log(row_num, i, value)
                cell {
                  data value
                  index i + 1
                }
              else
                log(row_num, i, "empty, rowspan = #{max_rows - row_num}")
                cell {
                  rowspan max_rows - row_num
                  index i + 1
                }
                aggregate_row[i] = nil
              end
            end
          end
        end
      end
    end
  end
end

puts "done."

fname = 'rowspan-example.xls'
ws.to_file(fname)
puts "spreadsheet written to '#{fname}'"