How to read excel file in shell script

Using linux you have several choices, but none without using a script language and most likely installing an extra module.

Using Perl you could read Excel files i.e. with this module: https://metacpan.org/pod/Spreadsheet::Read

Using Python you might want to use: https://pypi.python.org/pypi/xlrd

And using Ruby you could go for: https://github.com/zdavatz/spreadsheet/blob/master/GUIDE.md

So whatever you prefer, there are tools to help you.

CSV Format

If you can get your data as CSV (comma separated values) file, then it is even easier, because no extra modules are needed.

For example in Perl, you could use Split function. Now that i roughly know the format of your CSV file, let me give you a simple sample:

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;
use warnings;

# put full path to your csv file here
my $file = "/Users/daniel/dev/perl/test.csv";

# open file and read data
open(my $data, '<', $file) or die "Could not read '$file' $!\n";

# loop through all lines of data
while (my $line = <$data>) {

  # one line
  chomp $line;

  # split fields from line by comma
  my @fields = split "," , $line;

  # get size of split array
  my $size = $#fields + 1;

  # loop through all fields in array
  for (my $i=0; $i < $size; $i++) {

    # first element should be user
    my $user = $fields[$i];
    print "User is $user";

    # now check if there is another field following
    if (++$i < $size) {

      # second field should be loop
      my $loop = $fields[$i];
      print ", Loop is $loop";

      # now here you can call your command
      # i used "echo" as test, replace it with whatever
      system("echo", $user, $loop);

    } else {
      # got only user but no loop
      print "NO LOOP FOR USER?";
    }
    print "\n";
  }
}

So this goes through all lines of your CSV file looks for User,Loop pairs and passes them to a system command. For this sample i used echo but you should replace this with your command.

Looks like i did you homework :D