Connection to a spreadsheet

Explains how to connect OPL to a spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet operations in OPL all refer to a spreadsheet connection. The instruction

/* .dat file */
SheetConnection sheet("transport.xls"); 

establishes a connection sheet to a spreadsheet named transport.xls. The connection sheet should be viewed as a handle on the spreadsheet. It is possible in OPL to connect to several spreadsheets within the same model.

The instruction SheetConnection takes only one parameter and you do not need to specify the full path to the spreadsheet name. Relative paths are resolved using the current directory of .dat files.

Note that, in this section, we often use the word “spreadsheet” for “spreadsheet connection”.