I really appreciate your help. I figured it out. I did not use the cell by cell method. The data in a column can be handled the same. The most helpful thing was the write_string function. Instead of dumping the data into excel and formating all the data generally...I used the below method. It works great. Sometimes I just need a nug or idea...Again Thanks!!!

this works...I set the formats by column...

###############################
#
#  insert Data into spreadsheet
#
###############################

my $row = 1;
my $col = 0;


  while (
    my ( $TOTAL, $type, $calendar_date, $location, $rto_store,
         $change, $remodel_date, $LYTD_START_DATE) = $query->fetchrow_
+array() 
    ) {
      $row++;
      $col=0;
      $worksheet->write_string( $row, $col++, $TOTAL,$text_format );
      $worksheet->write_string( $row, $col++, $type,$text_format );
      $worksheet->write_date_time( $row, $col++, $calendar_date, $date
+_format );
      $worksheet->write_string( $row, $col++, $location,$text_format )
+;
      $worksheet->write_string( $row, $col++, $rto_store,$store_format
+);
      $worksheet->write_string( $row, $col++, $change,$text_format );
      $worksheet->write_date_time( $row, $col++, $remodel_date, $date_
+format );
      $worksheet->write_date_time( $row, $col++, $LYTD_START_DATE, $da
+te_format );
  $row++;
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