Using ExcelDataReader to read Excel data starting from a particular cell

Question

I am using ExcelDataReader to read data from my Excel workbook in C#.
But structure of my Excel sheet is such that data to be read can start from any particular cell and

Answer 1

To be more clear, I will begin at the beginning.

I will rely on the sample code found in https://github.com/ExcelDataReader/ExcelDataReader, but with some modifications to avoid inconveniences.

The following code detects the file format, either xls or xlsx.

FileStream stream = File.Open(filePath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);
IExcelDataReader excelReader;

//1. Reading Excel file
if (Path.GetExtension(filePath).ToUpper() == ".XLS")
{
    //1.1 Reading from a binary Excel file ('97-2003 format; *.xls)
    excelReader = ExcelReaderFactory.CreateBinaryReader(stream);
}
else
{
    //1.2 Reading from a OpenXml Excel file (2007 format; *.xlsx)
    excelReader = ExcelReaderFactory.CreateOpenXmlReader(stream);
}

//2. DataSet - The result of each spreadsheet will be created in the result.Tables
DataSet result = excelReader.AsDataSet();

//3. DataSet - Create column names from first row
excelReader.IsFirstRowAsColumnNames = false;

Now we can access the file contents in a more convenient way. I use DataTable for this. The following is an example to access a specific cell, and print its value in the console:

DataTable dt = result.Tables[0];
Console.WriteLine(dt.Rows[rowPosition][columnPosition]);

If you do not want to do a DataTable, you can do the same as follows:

Console.WriteLine(result.Tables[0].Rows[rowPosition][columnPosition]);

It is important not try to read beyond the limits of the table, for this you can see the number of rows and columns as follows:

Console.WriteLine(result.Tables[0].Rows.Count);
Console.WriteLine(result.Tables[0].Columns.Count);

Finally, when you're done, you should close the reader and free resources:

//5. Free resources (IExcelDataReader is IDisposable)
excelReader.Close();

I hope you find it useful.

(I understand that the question is old, but I make this contribution to enhance the knowledge base, because there is little material about particular implementations of this library).

Answer 2

For ExcelDataReader v3.6.0 and above. I struggled a bit to iterate over the Rows. So here's a little more to the above code. Hope it helps for few atleast.

using (var stream = System.IO.File.Open(copyPath, FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read))
                    {

                        IExcelDataReader excelDataReader = ExcelDataReader.ExcelReaderFactory.CreateReader(stream);

                        var conf = new ExcelDataSetConfiguration()
                        {
                            ConfigureDataTable = a => new ExcelDataTableConfiguration
                            {
                                UseHeaderRow = true
                            }
                        };

                        DataSet dataSet = excelDataReader.AsDataSet(conf);
                        //DataTable dataTable = dataSet.Tables["Sheet1"];
                        DataRowCollection row = dataSet.Tables["Sheet1"].Rows;
                        //DataColumnCollection col = dataSet.Tables["Sheet1"].Columns;

                        List<object> rowDataList = null;
                        List<object> allRowsList = new List<object>();
                        foreach (DataRow item in row)
                        {
                            rowDataList = item.ItemArray.ToList(); //list of each rows
                            allRowsList.Add(rowDataList); //adding the above list of each row to another list
                        }

                    }