Related
I have one question and I'm hoping it's an easy one for you.
(Windows Forms Application, C#, Framework 3.5, SQL Server 2008 R2)
I don't know how to open Excel (it is loaded in byte[] type) via OleDB.
So, what have I done:
I have uploaded Excel (.xls(x)) file via form, and saved it in a database as varbinary(max). Now I need to read that Excel file via oleDB. I've managed to load that file from database and saved it into byte[] variable. How can I open byte[] in oleDB?
When I uploaded file for the first time (before saving it to the database), I've opened it via OleDB with just passing file path. How can I access Excel's data when it is already stored in memory as byte[]?
If you want to read using OleDB, then you have to write the bytes to disk. For example, you could do this:
var filename = System.IO.Path.GetTempFileName();
// Assuming that fileBytes is a byte[] containing what you read from your database
System.IO.File.WriteAllBytes(filename, fileBytes);
var connection = #"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + filename + ";Extended Properties=\"Excel 12.0;HDR=YES\"";
// Do your work on excel
using (System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection conn = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(connection))
{
conn.Open();
using (var cmd = conn.CreateCommand())
{
cmd.CommandText = "SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]";
using (var rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
{
while (rdr.Read())
{
System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(rdr["ColumnName"]);
}
}
}
conn.Close();
}
//Cleanup
System.IO.File.Delete(filename);
If you don't want to write the file to disk, you could look into using a third party library that can read excel files from a memory stream. Tools like SpreadsheetGear or Aspose are commercial tools that can accomplish this.
I don't know anything about what library you're using to deal with your Excel data, but the first thing that comes to mind is that it almost certainly has a LoadFromFile method. It might not be called that, but that's what it does. See if it also has a LoadFromStream method, and if so, take your byte[] data and load it into a MemoryStream, and load the XLS from there.
emp.upload_file = Path.GetFileName(file.FileName);
emp as your table object created and file is HttpPostedFileBase file
This question already has answers here:
Reading Excel files from C#
(32 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
My application needs to read data from an excel file. I am using .Net and c# for development.
I cannot install MS office in the system. Because of that the my application fails to read excel file and throws an error while loading the dll for excel.
How can i access excel file in my application in a system where ms office is not installed?
There is the option to use OleDB and use the Excel sheets like datatables in a database...
Just an example.....
string con =
#"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=D:\temp\test.xls;" +
#"Extended Properties='Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;'";
using(OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(con))
{
connection.Open();
OleDbCommand command = new OleDbCommand("select * from [Sheet1$]", connection);
using(OleDbDataReader dr = command.ExecuteReader())
{
while(dr.Read())
{
var row1Col0 = dr[0];
Console.WriteLine(row1Col0);
}
}
}
This example use the Microsoft.Jet.OleDb.4.0 provider to open and read the Excel file. However, if the file is of type xlsx (from Excel 2007 and later), then you need to download the Microsoft Access Database Engine components and install it on the target machine.
The provider is called Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;. Pay attention to the fact that there are two versions of this component, one for 32bit and one for 64bit. Choose the appropriate one for the bitness of your application and what Office version is installed (if any). There are a lot of quirks to have that driver correctly working for your application. See this question for example.
Of course you don't need Office installed on the target machine.
While this approach has some merits, I think you should pay particular attention to the link signaled by a comment in your question Reading excel files from C#. There are some problems regarding the correct interpretation of the data types and when the length of data, present in a single excel cell, is longer than 255 characters
CSharpJExcel for reading Excel 97-2003 files (XLS), ExcelPackage for reading Excel 2007/2010 files (Office Open XML format, XLSX), and ExcelDataReader that seems to have the ability to handle both formats
Good luck!
Save the Excel file to CSV, and read the resulting file with C# using a CSV reader library like FileHelpers.
I don't have a machine available to test this but it should work. First you will probably need to install the either the 2007 Office System Driver: Data Connectivity Components or the Microsoft Access Database Engine 2010 Redistributable. Then try the following code, note you will need to change the name of the Sheet in the Select statement below to match sheetname in your excel file:
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;
namespace Data_Migration_Process_Creator
{
class Class1
{
private DataTable GetDataTable(string sql, string connectionString)
{
DataTable dt = null;
using (OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection(connectionString))
{
conn.Open();
using (OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand(sql, conn))
{
using (OleDbDataReader rdr = cmd.ExecuteReader())
{
dt.Load(rdr);
return dt;
}
}
}
}
private void GetExcel()
{
string fullPathToExcel = "<Path to Excel file>"; //ie C:\Temp\YourExcel.xls
string connString = string.Format("Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source={0};Extended Properties='Excel 12.0;HDR=yes'", fullPathToExcel);
DataTable dt = GetDataTable("SELECT * from [SheetName$]", connString);
foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
{
//Do what you need to do with your data here
}
}
}
}
Note: I don't have an environment to test this in (One with Office installed) so I can't say if it will work in your environment or not but I don't see why it shouldn't work.
Convert the excel file to .csv file (comma separated value file) and now you can easily be able to read it.
Locked. This question and its answers are locked because the question is off-topic but has historical significance. It is not currently accepting new answers or interactions.
Is there a free or open source library to read Excel files (.xls) directly from a C# program?
It does not need to be too fancy, just to select a worksheet and read the data as strings. So far, I've been using Export to Unicode text function of Excel, and parsing the resulting (tab-delimited) file, but I'd like to eliminate the manual step.
var fileName = string.Format("{0}\\fileNameHere", Directory.GetCurrentDirectory());
var connectionString = string.Format("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; data source={0}; Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;", fileName);
var adapter = new OleDbDataAdapter("SELECT * FROM [workSheetNameHere$]", 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.
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.
I need to connect to an open Excel 2003 file using .NET 3.5
It seems the OleDb connection which I am trying to use wants the file exclusively. But I need to have this file open in Excel in the same time.
Is non-locking reading possible?
EDIT: I resolved this by copying file before opening it.
the question seems have no answer. and I cant delete it....
my solution was - run macro on timer to save the excel file in question and C# app was copying the file to another one and reading it using OleDb.
This seems like a similar problem:
Writing into excel file with OLEDB
Does that work out for you?
What parameters are you passing in when you open the Excel document? Could you set the "ReadOnly" parameter in Workbook.Open() to true? See here.
Refer to the code below how to get the information of Excel data into an array. Then you will perform any validations on that Excel sheet.
var fileName = #"D:\Pavan\WorkDiployed.xlsx";
var connectionString = string.Format("Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0; data source={0}; Extended Properties=Excel 12.0;", fileName);
OleDbConnection con = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection(connectionString);
OleDbDataAdapter cmd = new System.Data.OleDb.OleDbDataAdapter("select * from [Sheet1$]", con);
con.Open();
System.Data.DataSet excelDataSet = new DataSet();
cmd.Fill(excelDataSet);
DataTable data = excelDataSet.Tables[0];
DataRow[] arrdata = data.Select();
foreach (DataRow rw in arrdata)
{
object[] cval = rw.ItemArray;
}
con.Close();
MessageBox.Show (excelDataSet.Tables[0].ToString ());