Best format for importing to excel - c#

I need to output table data from my c# Application that will be imported to Excel. The data contains date/time that needs to be correctly imported to Excel (as dates). I need a file format that is supported by the .net framework on one hand and on the other is easily imported to Excel.
Anyone?
/jorx

Try a straight text file in .csv format. For example:
will open in Excel like:
You can later modify the format to suite your needs.
EDIT#1:
Here is a better example:

Related

How to convert a CSV into a SQLite database using C#

I'm struggling to figure out how to convert a CSV file into a database. I've tried a few methods here but I can't wrap my head around it. I have a CSV file with thousands of rows and I need to convert that into a
SQLite database using C#. Any help is appreciated!
You can leverage MS Excel, open the CSV file and specify your character separator as needed (I believe it will default to tab limited). You can now save your thousands of rows as an Excel spreadsheet versus the character separated file (CSV) format.
Then you can leverage the open source OpenXML libraries to open the Excel document and work with it using object model. In an object oriented fashion, you can programatically create your new database using SQL statements.
Query for the spreadsheet headers to be used as your column names. Of course you'll need to ensure that your source CSV had provided appropriate headers. These can easily be added to the top of the large file if not.
E.g.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/office/open-xml/how-to-get-a-column-heading-in-a-spreadsheet
Next, you simply iterate the rows and construct your SQL statement to insert the rows. You can review the Open XML docs, Microsoft docs, or existing StackOverflow docs for sample code on how this is easily done.
How to read xslx with open XML SDK based on columns in each row in C#?

OPEN XML to Export 2007/2010

In my application I already have functionality to export into 2003 format. Where I am constructing a string out of the template and write using System.IO.File.WriteAllText.
But it does not work with excel 2007/2010, that's why I wanted to convert it to Openxml in order to support 2007 and 2010.
I have string ready with creation of cells and rows from template.
I want advice on how to achieve or any body has reference link.
Please let me know.
Regards
WriteAllText class will save you a text file. You are saving an html(text) based file with xls extension. This is not a real xls file (that is actually a binary file), but MS Excel recognize and interpret the html format.
An xlsx file is a binary file. You can use OpenXML Office library ( Excel.XlFileFormat.xlOpenXMLWorkbook ) or another .NET Excel library like EasyXLS. Check this sample of code for more details.

How do I create a structure that can be pasted into Excel in C#

I want to create a data structure that I can copy to the clipboard in such a way that the user can paste it into an Excel worksheet and it inserts correctly into the columns and rows of the sheet.
Is there any way to create such a data structure? Or does it already exist?
I would like to avoid having to open up Excel and pasting the values myself because I can't determine if the worksheet will look the same in the future, so I'd rather have the user himself copy the rows and columns where he wants them.
When copying the data to clipboard, format it as Tab separated for columns, and Enter separated for rows. When pasting in Excel it will automatically put the values in rows and columns.
You can copy your data to clipboard in a tab-delimited textual format.
A tab or comma delimited string is the easiest and least technical solution.
Assuming you want something a little more complicated there are some superb libraries around (search CodePlex) which can offer creating Excel documents in managed code.
Or you could use the interop libraries that come ad part of the Visual Studio office integration.
Or you could use the XLSX format based on XML.

How to put HH:mm:ss formatted times in CSV so Excel formats them as regular text?

I'm writing times into a CSV file time using the format HH:mm:ss. When excel opens the file it automatically recognizes this column format as time. Is it possible to prevent Excel from doing this so the column is formatted as regular text?
Thank you
There was recently a similar question on SuperUser: link
The same principle as the accepted answer can be employed here if all you want is a CSV that can be opened with Excel without the ill-effects of autoformatting. You'll need to write your values to the CSV in this format:
="yourdatetimehere"
Of course the downside is that the equal signs and quotation marks will be stored in your CSV as text. This means that this will probably cause problems for you if you plan to use the CSV in any context outside Excel. But as a hack to get around Excel's autoformatting, this should work.
You have no control over formatting in a CSV file, unless you want to go through the full custom-import setup in Excel each time.
If you want to force Excel to treat something as text, then use a proper Excel file, generated using PHPExcel

Excel to XML in .NET3.5

How to convert Excel file to xml file using .NET framework 3.5
Please tell the approaches
The format of excel sheet is xls and convert to standard xml format
SpreadsheetGear for .NET will let you open a workbook (xls or xlsx format), get the formatted text (such as $5.00) with the IRange.Text property or the unformatted raw value with the IRange.Value property. You can also modify values and recalculate if needed. You would need to use the .NET XML APIs to write out the formatted text or unformatted values to an XML file.
You can download a free trial here if you want to try it yourself.
Disclaimer: I own SpreadsheetGear LLC
You can do it in various ways based on your requirement
You can read it like a database using OleDbConnection object to connect to the file and read data
You can use System.IO.Packaging to read office 2007 (xlsx) files
You can also use Excel.Application object model to read information from Excel
It really depends on your requirement what method is effective for you.

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