How can I create a table readable in excel? C# - c#

I have some data in c#, and I want to put this data into Excel. I figure the easiest way is to export it as XML since Excel reads xml files.
What's the easiest way to do this? I don't know what format the xml needs to be in for Excel to read it. I want a simple table of data (headers, data, and totals, although the totals I can simply generate in c# rather than have excel do it).
There might also be a better way without using xml, but simplest is best and definitely no 3rd party stuff...
Ideas?


The easiest way is to dump data into a CSV format, and open it with Excel!
This can take 10 lines of code in Python.
I am sure you can figure this out:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comma-separated_values


There's a nice intro at http://www.codeproject.com/KB/office/excelxmlspreadsheet.aspx that should get you started writing basic XML spreadsheets.
You may want to reconsider using 3rd party tools; there are some nice ones out there with good licenses that will make your life a lot easier.
I've used http://www.carlosag.net/Tools/ExcelXmlWriter/ previously to write simple data to an Excel spreadsheet. It outputs right into the Excel XML format you mention.
I've also had success using Apache POI HSSF, though not its most recent incarnation (it lacked Office 2007 support at the time). You can use IKVM to recompile the Java library into a .NET library, and you're good to go.


This article explains how to open an manipulate XML data in Excel 2003, and this video explains the same for 2007.
Or, as lpthnc has suggested, you can export the data as CSV which Excel has no problem handling.


Write a CSV reader writer if you want a good compromise between human and machine readable in a Windows environment
Loads into Excel too.
There's a discussion about it here:
http://knab.ws/blog/index.php?/archives/3-CSV-file-parser-and-writer-in-C-Part-1.html
That is a C# article not a C one.


An alternate approach if your needs are basic: you can put it into HTML with a table representing your spreadsheet and just name your html file .xls. That way you don't need to worry about what a comma will do to you and can provide a basic level of formatting as well.


I have had to do similar things in the past. The easiest way I have found to do it is to export directly from my application to excel:
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
Populate a datatable, datagrid, dataset, etc. and iteerate through the results and output to excel. The exmaple below is in VB but can be easily altered for your purposes and uses a dataset:
Public Sub ExcelExport(ByVal objDataSet As System.Data.DataSet)
Try
Dim l_ofd As New SaveFileDialog
l_ofd.Filter = "Microsoft 2007 Excel File (*.xls)|*.xls"
If (l_ofd.ShowDialog = System.Windows.Forms.DialogResult.OK) Then
If (objDataSet.Tables.Count > 0) Then
Dim myExcel As ApplicationClass = New ApplicationClass()
myExcel.Visible = _ShowWorkBook
Dim wb1 As Workbook = myExcel.Workbooks.Add("")
Dim ws1 As Worksheet = CType(wb1.Worksheets.Add, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet)
ws1.Name = _WorkSheetName
For indx As Integer = 0 To objDataSet.Tables(_DataSetName).Columns.Count - 1
ws1.Cells(1, indx + 1) = objDataSet.Tables(_DataSetName).Columns.Item(indx).ToString
Next
Dim rowID As Integer = 2
Dim dr As DataRow
For Each dr In objDataSet.Tables(_DataSetName).Rows
Dim colID As Integer = 1
Dim data As Object
For Each data In dr.ItemArray
ws1.Cells(rowID, colID) = data.ToString()
colID += 1
Next
rowID += 1
Next
Dim fileName As String = l_ofd.FileName
wb1.SaveAs(fileName)
wb1.Close()
myExcel.Workbooks.Close()
myExcel.Quit()
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(myExcel)
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(ws1)
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(wb1)
ws1 = Nothing
wb1 = Nothing
myExcel = Nothing
Else
MessageBox.Show("No data present to export")
End If
End If
Catch ex As Exception
MessageBox.Show(ex.Message.ToString())
End Try
End Sub


Here's an article that presents another approach using the OpenXML SDK 2.0:
http://openxmldeveloper.org/articles/7937.aspx
It demonstrates the use of ExtremeML - a 100% managed code extension library that greatly simplifies the programmatic creation of Excel content from .NET languages. The tutorial series covers a broad range of scenarios.
Disclaimer: I am the creator of ExtremeML.


if you have a DataTable, I just wrote some code to transfer it to Excel. First you need an Excel reference.
//Just a test DataTable
System.Data.DataTable table = new System.Data.DataTable();
table.Columns.AddRange(new DataColumn[] { new DataColumn("Col1"),new DataColumn("Col2") });
table.Rows.Add("row1col1", "row1col2");
table.Rows.Add("row2col1", "row2col2");
//create Excel Application
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.ApplicationClass s = new ApplicationClass();
Workbook w = s.Workbooks.Add(""); //create new Workbook
Worksheet ws = w.ActiveSheet as Worksheet; //get active sheet.
//COPY COLUMN HEADERS
int startCol = 1;
int startRow = 1;
foreach (DataColumn col in table.Columns)
{
//copy columns in the first row
((Range)ws.Cells[startRow, startCol]).Value2 = col.ColumnName;
startCol++;
}
//COPY ROWS
startRow = 2; //start 2nd row
foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
{
startCol = 1;
foreach (DataColumn col in table.Columns)
{
((Range)ws.Cells[startRow, startCol]).Value2 = row[col].ToString();
startCol++;
}
startRow++;
}
//start EXCEL
s.Visible = true;

Related

C# Excel Interop row limit -> HRESULT: 0x800A03EC exception thrown

I have a C# application which purpose is to store a big amount of data. I am using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.dll Version 14.0.0.0) to help me accomplish this. I have Excel 2007 installed.
I use the following lines:
excelApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
excelWorkBook = excelApp.Workbooks.Add(misValue);//*--------> LINE NOT WORKING */
excelWorksheetBeingWritten = (Excel.Worksheet)excelWorkBook.Worksheets.get_Item(1);
My code then iterates through a big list of objects, and each time a row must be written I do something like:
var startCell = excelWorksheetBeingWritten.Cells[excelLineCounter, 1];
var endCell = excelWorksheetBeingWritten.Cells[excelLineCounter, 2];
string[] tmpArray = new string[2] { stringVar1, stringVar2 };
tmpRange = excelWorksheetBeingWritten.Range[startCell, endCell];
tmpRange.Value = tmpArray;
When excelLineCounter exceeds 65536, the "HRESULT: 0x800A03EC exception" is thrown. I am perfectly aware of the (in)famous pre-Excel2007 row limit (which is precisely 65536). What I don't understand is why the interops are using that limit, when Excel 2007 (my version) has a documented limit of 1.048.576 rows.
On the other hand, if I replace the above "LINE NOT WORKING" by the following, it seems to use the Excel 2007 row limit, and the exception vanishes:
excelWorkBook = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(#"H:\Workbook1.xlsx");//*--------> LINE WORKING */
Note: "Workbook1.xlsx" is an empty workbook previously saved as "Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)"
Can someone please tell me what kind of sorcery do I need to do in order to configure the Excel Interop objects to use the Excel 2007 limits by default, preferably without having a previously saved empty .xlsx file laying around?

I encountered a similar issue yesterday and the solution is to change your Excel settings to create xlsx files by default.
In Excel: File -> Options -> Save -> Save files in this format
Your default is probably 'Excel 97-2003 (*.xls)' like mine was. If you change it to 'Excel Workbook (*.xlsx)', your code will work.

creating an excel file and automatically expanding column widths

I have a regular html table:
<table>
<tr>hello</tr>
<tr>world</tr>
</table>
and I am creating an XLS file out of it:
string randomname = #"C:\attachmentsfolder\" + System.IO.Path.GetRandomFileName() + ".xls";
System.IO.File.WriteAllText( randomname, message);
When I open the XLS file generated, I need to MANUALLY expand the columns in order to see long data.
My question is: How can I generate this XLS file such that the columns are already sized properly?

You could do that easily with EPPlus (Open Source .NET Excel 2007+ library), and you will have a valid excel file, here is the example code :
public static void FitAndSaveToExcel(FileInfo excelFile, string sheetName)
{
ExcelPackage pack = new ExcelPackage();
ExcelWorksheet ws = pack.Workbook.Worksheets.Add(sheetName);
ws.Cells[1, 1].Value = "Some Long text that needs fitting!";
ws.Cells[1, 2].Value = "Short one";
ws.Column(1).AutoFit();
pack.SaveAs(excelFile);
}

In Excel VBA, you can achieve the effect you seek with Rng.Columns.AutoFit. I believe the C# equivalent is Rng.Columns.AutoFit();.
However, I agree with Diodeus, you will have to fix your html first.

You also could use a third-party tool like e.g. Aspose.Cells to create the Excel file.
I've used this in a lot of projects successfully. It provides the auto-fit function that you require.

Read a cell (or range of cells) directly from an open workbook in Excel using C#? [duplicate]

Locked. This question and its answers are locked because the question is off-topic but has historical significance. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
Is there a free or open source library to read Excel files (.xls) directly from a C# program?
It does not need to be too fancy, just to select a worksheet and read the data as strings. So far, I've been using Export to Unicode text function of Excel, and parsing the resulting (tab-delimited) file, but I'd like to eliminate the manual step.

var fileName = string.Format("{0}\\fileNameHere", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());
var connectionString = string.Format("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; data source={0}; Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;", fileName);
var adapter = new OleDbDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM [workSheetNameHere$]", connectionString);
var ds = new DataSet();
adapter.Fill(ds, "anyNameHere");
DataTable data = ds.Tables["anyNameHere"];
This is what I usually use. It is a little different because I usually stick a AsEnumerable() at the edit of the tables:
var data = ds.Tables["anyNameHere"].AsEnumerable();
as this lets me use LINQ to search and build structs from the fields.
var query = data.Where(x => x.Field<string>("phoneNumber") != string.Empty).Select(x =>
new MyContact
{
firstName= x.Field<string>("First Name"),
lastName = x.Field<string>("Last Name"),
phoneNumber =x.Field<string>("Phone Number"),
});

If it is just simple data contained in the Excel file you can read the data via ADO.NET. See the connection strings listed here:
http://www.connectionstrings.com/?carrier=excel2007
or
http://www.connectionstrings.com/?carrier=excel
-Ryan
Update: then you can just read the worksheet via something like select * from [Sheet1$]

The ADO.NET approach is quick and easy, but it has a few quirks which you should be aware of, especially regarding how DataTypes are handled.
This excellent article will help you avoid some common pitfalls:
http://blog.lab49.com/archives/196

This is what I used for Excel 2003:
Dictionary<string, string> props = new Dictionary<string, string>();
props["Provider"] = "Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0";
props["Data Source"] = repFile;
props["Extended Properties"] = "Excel 8.0";
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
foreach (KeyValuePair<string, string> prop in props)
{
sb.Append(prop.Key);
sb.Append('=');
sb.Append(prop.Value);
sb.Append(';');
}
string properties = sb.ToString();
using (OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(properties))
{
conn.Open();
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
string columns = String.Join(",", columnNames.ToArray());
using (OleDbDataAdapter da = new OleDbDataAdapter(
"SELECT " + columns + " FROM [" + worksheet + "$]", conn))
{
DataTable dt = new DataTable(tableName);
da.Fill(dt);
ds.Tables.Add(dt);
}
}

How about Excel Data Reader?
http://exceldatareader.codeplex.com/
I've used in it anger, in a production environment, to pull large amounts of data from a variety of Excel files into SQL Server Compact. It works very well and it's rather robust.

Here's some code I wrote in C# using .NET 1.1 a few years ago. Not sure if this would be exactly what you need (and may not be my best code :)).
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;
namespace ExportExcelToAccess
{
/// <summary>
/// Summary description for ExcelHelper.
/// </summary>
public sealed class ExcelHelper
{
private const string CONNECTION_STRING = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=<FILENAME>;Extended Properties=\"Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;\";";
public static DataTable GetDataTableFromExcelFile(string fullFileName, ref string sheetName)
{
OleDbConnection objConnection = new OleDbConnection();
objConnection = new OleDbConnection(CONNECTION_STRING.Replace("<FILENAME>", fullFileName));
DataSet dsImport = new DataSet();
try
{
objConnection.Open();
DataTable dtSchema = objConnection.GetOleDbSchemaTable(OleDbSchemaGuid.Tables, null);
if( (null == dtSchema) || ( dtSchema.Rows.Count <= 0 ) )
{
//raise exception if needed
}
if( (null != sheetName) && (0 != sheetName.Length))
{
if( !CheckIfSheetNameExists(sheetName, dtSchema) )
{
//raise exception if needed
}
}
else
{
//Reading the first sheet name from the Excel file.
sheetName = dtSchema.Rows[0]["TABLE_NAME"].ToString();
}
new OleDbDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM [" + sheetName + "]", objConnection ).Fill(dsImport);
}
catch (Exception)
{
//raise exception if needed
}
finally
{
// Clean up.
if(objConnection != null)
{
objConnection.Close();
objConnection.Dispose();
}
}
return dsImport.Tables[0];
#region Commented code for importing data from CSV file.
// string strConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" +"Data Source=" + System.IO.Path.GetDirectoryName(fullFileName) +";" +"Extended Properties=\"Text;HDR=YES;FMT=Delimited\"";
//
// System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection conText = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(strConnectionString);
// new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM " + System.IO.Path.GetFileName(fullFileName).Replace(".", "#"), conText).Fill(dsImport);
// return dsImport.Tables[0];
#endregion
}
/// <summary>
/// This method checks if the user entered sheetName exists in the Schema Table
/// </summary>
/// <param name="sheetName">Sheet name to be verified</param>
/// <param name="dtSchema">schema table </param>
private static bool CheckIfSheetNameExists(string sheetName, DataTable dtSchema)
{
foreach(DataRow dataRow in dtSchema.Rows)
{
if( sheetName == dataRow["TABLE_NAME"].ToString() )
{
return true;
}
}
return false;
}
}
}

Koogra is an open-source component written in C# that reads and writes Excel files.

While you did specifically ask for .xls, implying the older file formats, for the OpenXML formats (e.g. xlsx) I highly recommend the OpenXML SDK (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb448854.aspx)

I did a lot of reading from Excel files in C# a while ago, and we used two approaches:
The COM API, where you access Excel's objects directly and manipulate them through methods and properties
The ODBC driver that allows to use Excel like a database.
The latter approach was much faster: reading a big table with 20 columns and 200 lines would take 30 seconds via COM, and half a second via ODBC. So I would recommend the database approach if all you need is the data.
Cheers,
Carl

ExcelMapper is an open source tool (http://code.google.com/p/excelmapper/) that can be used to read Excel worksheets as Strongly Typed Objects. It supports both xls and xlsx formats.

I want to show a simple method to read xls/xlsx file with .NET. I hope that the following will be helpful for you.
private DataTable ReadExcelToTable(string path)
{
//Connection String
string connstring = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + path + ";Extended Properties='Excel 8.0;HDR=NO;IMEX=1';";
//the same name
//string connstring = Provider=Microsoft.JET.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" + path + //";Extended Properties='Excel 8.0;HDR=NO;IMEX=1';";
using(OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(connstring))
{
conn.Open();
//Get All Sheets Name
DataTable sheetsName = conn.GetOleDbSchemaTable(OleDbSchemaGuid.Tables,new object[]{null,null,null,"Table"});
//Get the First Sheet Name
string firstSheetName = sheetsName.Rows[0][2].ToString();
//Query String
string sql = string.Format("SELECT * FROM [{0}]",firstSheetName);
OleDbDataAdapter ada =new OleDbDataAdapter(sql,connstring);
DataSet set = new DataSet();
ada.Fill(set);
return set.Tables[0];
}
}
Code is from article: http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/uploadfile/d2dcfc/read-excel-file-with-net/. You can get more details from it.

Not free, but with the latest Office there's a very nice automation .Net API. (there has been an API for a long while but was nasty COM) You can do everything you want / need in code all while the Office app remains a hidden background process.

Forgive me if I am off-base here, but isn't this what the Office PIA's are for?

Lately, partly to get better at LINQ.... I've been using Excel's automation API to save the file as XML Spreadsheet and then get process that file using LINQ to XML.

SpreadsheetGear for .NET is an Excel compatible spreadsheet component for .NET. You can see what our customers say about performance on the right hand side of our product page. You can try it yourself with the free, fully-functional evaluation.

SmartXLS is another excel spreadsheet component which support most features of excel Charts,formulas engines, and can read/write the excel2007 openxml format.

The .NET component Excel Reader .NET may satisfy your requirement. It's good enought for reading XLSX and XLS files. So try it from:
http://www.devtriogroup.com/ExcelReader

I recommend the FileHelpers Library which is a free and easy to use .NET library to import/export data from EXCEL, fixed length or delimited records in files, strings or streams + More.
The Excel Data Link Documentation Section
http://filehelpers.sourceforge.net/example_exceldatalink.html

You can try using this open source solution that makes dealing with Excel a lot more cleaner.
http://excelwrapperdotnet.codeplex.com/

SpreadsheetGear is awesome. Yes it's an expense, but compared to twiddling with these other solutions, it's worth the cost. It is fast, reliable, very comprehensive, and I have to say after using this product in my fulltime software job for over a year and a half, their customer support is fantastic!

The solution that we used, needed to:
Allow Reading/Writing of Excel produced files
Be Fast in performance (not like using COMs)
Be MS Office Independent (needed to be usable without clients having MS Office installed)
Be Free or Open Source (but actively developed)
There are several choices, but we found NPoi (.NET port of Java's long existing Poi open source project) to be the best:
http://npoi.codeplex.com/
It also allows working with .doc and .ppt file formats

If it's just tabular data. I would recommend file data helpers by Marcos Melli which can be downloaded here.

Late to the party, but I'm a fan of LinqToExcel

you could write an excel spreadsheet that loads a given excel spreadsheet and saves it as csv (rather than doing it manually).
then you could automate that from c#.
and once its in csv, the c# program can grok that.
(also, if someone asks you to program in excel, it's best to pretend you don't know how)
(edit: ah yes, rob and ryan are both right)

I know that people have been making an Excel "extension" for this purpose.
You more or less make a button in Excel that says "Export to Program X", and then export and send off the data in a format the program can read.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms186213.aspx should be a good place to start.
Good luck

Just did a quick demo project that required managing some excel files. The .NET component from GemBox software was adequate for my needs. It has a free version with a few limitations.
http://www.gemboxsoftware.com/GBSpreadsheet.htm

Excel Package is an open-source (GPL) component for reading/writing Excel 2007 files. I used it on a small project, and the API is straightforward. Works with XLSX only (Excel 200&), not with XLS.
The source code also seems well-organized and easy to get around (if you need to expand functionality or fix minor issues as I did).
At first, I tried the ADO.Net (Excel connection string) approach, but it was fraught with nasty hacks -- for instance if second row contains a number, it will return ints for all fields in the column below and quietly drop any data that doesn't fit.

We use ClosedXML in rather large systems.
Free
Easy to install
Straight forward coding
Very responsive support
Developer team is extremly open to new suggestions. Often new features and bug fixes are implemented within the same week

Take.io Spreadsheet will do this work for you, and at no charge. Just take a look at this.

I just used ExcelLibrary to load an .xls spreadsheet into a DataSet. Worked great for me.

.NET Excel File Parser

So the company I'm working for is looking for a means to verify that a given .xls/.xlsx file is valid. Which means checking columns and rows and other data. He's having me evaluate GrapeCity Spread and SpreadsheetGear, but I'm wondering if anyone else has any other suggestions of external tools to check out.
We don't need a means to export .xls files or anything like that, just the ability to import them and verify they are valid based on a set of criteria I create.
Thanks.

If you need just to compare cell values you can use ADO.NET driver, for anything else will be required Excel or third party component. I am using SpreadsheetGear. When I was evaluating this component 3 years ago I have found an issue with conditional formatting for cell with absolute reference, but issue was quickly resolved. They have same day support response.

To my mind, the easiest way to handle this is to use an ODBC Excel data provider. I find it more straightforward to work with than the PIAs.
// Connection string for Excel 2007 (.xlsx)
string dbConnStr = #"Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)};Dsn=Excel Files;dbq=C:\temp\mySpreadsheet.xlsx";
// Connection string for Excel 98-2003 (.xls)
//string dbConnStr = #"Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)};driverid=790;dbq=C:\temp\mySpreadsheet.xls;defaultdir=c:\temp";
OdbcCommand cmd = new OdbcCommand("Select * from [SheetName$]", new OdbcConnection(dbConnStr));
cmd.Connection.Open();
OdbcDataReader dr = cmd.ExecuteReader();
foreach (System.Data.IDataRecord item in dr)
{
// Check specific column values, etc
string id = item["Column Name"].ToString();
}

You can use the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel library to access any workbook the same way you do in Excel VBA.
Code looks like this:
using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
Excel.Application excel = new Excel.Application();
Excel.Workbook workbook = excel.Workbooks.Open("datasheet.xls");
Excel.Worksheet worksheet = workbook["Sheet1"] as Excel.Worksheet;
string someData = (worksheet.Range["A2"] as Excel.Range).Value.ToString();
worksheet = null;
workbook.Close();
excel.Quit();

Depending on your budget, the Aspose libraries are great. Not cheap but work very, very well.

you can use the oleDb from Microsoft to access the excel data as any other database system. You can get the right connection string from connectionstrings

Maybe the NPOI project can be useful (I have never used it though).
Best

Check out Excel Data Reader GitHub (formerly on CodePlex). I've used this a few times and it works well.
Be warned however that there are bugs reading .xlsx files where cells are skipped. Apply this patch (link is to Codeplex and out of date) I submitted for v2.0.1.0 to fix the problem. (The project maintainers don't seem active and I've had problems contacting them.)

how to create and download excel document using asp.net

How to create and download excel document using asp.net ?
The purpose is to use xml, linq or whatever to send an excel document to a customer via a browser.
Edit : Use case
The customer load a gridview ( made with ajax framework ) in a browser, the gridview is directly linked to an sql database.
I put a button 'export to excel' to let customer save this gridview data on his computer ansd i would like to launch a clean download of an excel.
The solutions proposed here are not clean, like send an html document and change the header to excel document etc, i'm searching a simple solution on codeplex right now, i will let you know.

Starter kit
First i have downloaded the Open XML Format SDK 2.0.
It comes with 3 useful tools in :
C:\Program Files\Open XML Format SDK\V2.0\tools
DocumentReflector.exe wich auto
generate the c# to build a
spreadsheet from the code.
OpenXmlClassesExplorer.exe display
Ecma specification and the class
documentation (using an MSDN style
format).
OpenXmlDiff.exe graphically compare
two Open XML files and search for
errors.
I suggest anyone who begin to rename .xlsx to .zip, so you can see the XML files who drive our spreadsheet ( for the example our sheets are in "xl\worksheets" ).
The code
Disclaimer : I have stolen all the code from an MSDN technical article ;D
The following code use an *.xlsx template i made manually to be able to modify it.
Namespaces references
using System.IO;
using System.Xml;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Packaging;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet;
using DocumentFormat.OpenXml;
// Database object
DataClassesDataContext db = new DataClassesDataContext();
// Make a copy of the template file.
File.Copy(#"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\project.Web\Clients\Handlers\oxml-tpl\livreurs.xlsx", #"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\project.Web\Clients\Handlers\oxml-tpl\generated.xlsx", true);
// Open the copied template workbook.
using (SpreadsheetDocument myWorkbook = SpreadsheetDocument.Open(#"C:\inetpub\wwwroot\project.Web\Clients\Handlers\oxml-tpl\generated.xlsx", true))
{
// Access the main Workbook part, which contains all references.
WorkbookPart workbookPart = myWorkbook.WorkbookPart;
// Get the first worksheet.
WorksheetPart worksheetPart = workbookPart.WorksheetParts.ElementAt(2);
// The SheetData object will contain all the data.
SheetData sheetData = worksheetPart.Worksheet.GetFirstChild<SheetData>();
// Begining Row pointer
int index = 2;
// Database results
var query = from t in db.Clients select t;
// For each item in the database, add a Row to SheetData.
foreach (var item in query)
{
// Cell related variable
string Nom = item.Nom;
// New Row
Row row = new Row();
row.RowIndex = (UInt32)index;
// New Cell
Cell cell = new Cell();
cell.DataType = CellValues.InlineString;
// Column A1, 2, 3 ... and so on
cell.CellReference = "A"+index;
// Create Text object
Text t = new Text();
t.Text = Nom;
// Append Text to InlineString object
InlineString inlineString = new InlineString();
inlineString.AppendChild(t);
// Append InlineString to Cell
cell.AppendChild(inlineString);
// Append Cell to Row
row.AppendChild(cell);
// Append Row to SheetData
sheetData.AppendChild(row);
// increase row pointer
index++;
}
// save
worksheetPart.Worksheet.Save();
}
I havent finished yet, my second job is to auto download the spreadsheet after modification.
Finally, i redirect the user to my generated spredsheet (from my aspx)
context.Response.Redirect("Oxml-tpl/generated.xlsx");

just set Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel" and your page will rendered as an excel sheet on the clients browser
Sample code here

There are quite a few ways of handling this, depending on how extensive the Excel functionality is. Binoj's answer works if the Excel is just a spreadsheet and has no direct Excel functionality built in. The client can add functionality, concats, etc. These are "dumb" excel docs until the client does soemthing.
To create a more full featured Excel doc, you havve two basic choices that I can think of offhand.
Use either the office components (re: bad) to create an excel document, or a third party component, like SoftArtisan's ExcelWriter. Great component, but there is a cost.
Use a control on the page that allows export to Excel. Most vendors of ASSP.NET controls have this functionality on their grids.
Option #1 allows you pretty much all functionality of Excel. Option #2 is a bit more limited, at least in the controls I have tried.

Good article on how top export to excel from Erika Ehrli
http://blogs.msdn.com/erikaehrli/archive/2009/01/30/how-to-export-data-to-excel-from-an-asp-net-application-avoid-the-file-format-differ-prompt.aspx

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