Reading Excel files from C#

Answer 1

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;
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

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"),
                    });

Answer 3

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

Answer 4

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

Answer 5

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)

Answer 6

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