You can simply create .csv files, which are comma separated values. Excel will be able to read them, and if your country settings are the right settings, it will even be able to open up the files via double-clicking them from the explorer.

The following should be an (untested) example that shows you what .csv can do (I assume US/english country settings) :

A,B,C,D
"This, my friend, is a string",1,2,3
42,23,17,5
=B2+C3,=A3+C3,=B3+C3,=SUM(A4:D4)
[download]

The one thing you can't do this way is doing Excel charts. Here, Win32::OLE is your friend to remotely control Excel.

If you are pulling your data out of the database, you will think about simply pulling it out via DBI and then writing the data into your .csv files via DBD::CSV.

perl -MHTTP::Daemon -MHTTP::Response -MLWP::Simple -e ' ;    # The  
$d = new HTTP::Daemon and fork and getprint $d->url and exit;#spider
($c = $d->accept())->get_request(); $c->send_response( new   #in the
HTTP::Response(200,$_,$_,qq(Just another Perl hacker\n))); ' #  web
[download]

The short answer is Yes.

The longer answer is that you can directly create the Excel spreadsheet, either via Win32::OLE (requires Office to be installed on the system) or the SpreadSheet::WriteExcel and SpreadSheet::ParseExcel modules from CPAN. Note that if you are using ActivePerl on Windows Win32::OLE is already installed (unless they've changed something since I last installed. ;) ).

With OLE, you can do anything in Excel that has a similar VB control. Try perldoc Win32::OLE if you are on Windows. There's also a quick and dirty reference for Win32::OLE on this page that I have used frequently.

A CPAN search on 'excel' reveals a wealth of code. Spreadsheet::WriteExcel may be worth a look.

Using CSV files will be much easier if you don't need control over formatting, adding formulas and such, though.

Makeshifts last the longest.

------
We are the carpenters and bricklayers of the Information Age.

Don't go borrowing trouble. For programmers, this means Worry only about what you need to implement.