Develop Reference

How to persist Excel cell formats in C# Interop?

I am reading an Excel sheet programmatically using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel in C#.
I am able to read it row by row and converting each row to a string arrray. Then, I am adding these rows to a DataTable.
Every thing works fine except the one of the column in the Excel contains Date values, and when I fetch it from the Excel Range object and cast it to string array, the date values gets converted to some sort of decimal numbers.
For e.g.-
If the date value is '6/4/2016 8:14:39 PM', I get the value as '42522.5224305556'
If the date value is '5/27/2016 1:10:12 PM', I get the value as '42517.54875'
Below is my code-
private System.Data.DataTable GetTicketsFromExcel(string excelFilePath)
{
System.Data.DataTable dtblTickets = new System.Data.DataTable();
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application excelApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
Worksheet ws = new Worksheet();
Workbook wb = null;
try
{
wb = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(excelFilePath, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
ws = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet)wb.Sheets.get_Item(1);
Range usedRange = ws.UsedRange;
Range rowRange;
string[] lsRow = null;
for (int i = 1; i <= usedRange.Columns.Count; i++)
{
dtblTickets.Columns.Add(usedRange.Cells[5, i].Value.ToString());
}
string sortColumn = "Reported On";
string sortDirection = "DESC";
dtblTickets.Columns[sortColumn].DataType = typeof(DateTime);
for (int row = 6; row <= usedRange.Rows.Count; row++)
{
//dtblTickets.Columns.Add()
rowRange = usedRange.Rows[row];
object[,] cellValues = (object[,])rowRange.Value2;
lsRow = cellValues.Cast<object>().Select(o => Convert.ToString(o)).ToArray<string>();
dtblTickets.Rows.Add(lsRow.ToArray());
}
dtblTickets.DefaultView.Sort = sortColumn + " " + sortDirection;
dtblTickets = dtblTickets.DefaultView.ToTable();
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
}
finally
{
wb.Close();
excelApp.Quit();
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(ws);
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(wb);
Marshal.ReleaseComObject(excelApp);
ws = null;
wb = null;
excelApp = null;
}
return dtblTickets;
}
Please note-
I don't want to use OLEDB to read and export this
I want to able to read the Excel row by row (without extracting each cell value and converting them)
I don't want to convert/format the original Excel document data
Can someone please help me with this?

Not quite sure, if you want to solve the problem this way, but one way is to change the property of the Cells (or the whole row or column) in Excel.
Right click on a Cell
Format Cells
Under "Number" select Category "Text" for the Cells.
I've tested it and it worked.

delete from multiple worksheet in Excel

I like to delete rows from multiple worksheet in Excel. Currently my code only delete rows from active worksheet. I am looking for a specific value on the cell then when I find this value then I am deleting all the rows up to that value that stored on that row.
Code
private void button2_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application Excel = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
Workbook workBook = Excel.Workbooks.Open(FilePath);
Worksheet ws = (Worksheet)Excel.ActiveSheet;
for (int j = 1; j <= 10; j++)
{
for (int i = 1; i <= 20; i++)
{
if (Convert.ToString(((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)ws.Cells[j, i]).Value2) == "Matter")
{
for (int r = 1; r <= j; r++)
{
((Range)ws.Rows[r]).Delete(XlDeleteShiftDirection.xlShiftUp);
MessageBox.Show(Convert.ToString(r));
workBook.SaveAs(#"C:\Users\Separate\New.xlsx", Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlFileFormat.xlWorkbookDefault, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
false, false, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlSaveAsAccessMode.xlNoChange,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
}
}
}
}
workBook.Close(Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
Excel.Quit();
System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.FinalReleaseComObject(Excel);
Excel = null;
}

I would highly suggest trying to use ClosedXML as it makes working with Excel so much easier. Specifically with ClosedXML you can have a line like this:
ws.Row(5).Delete();
where ws is your initialized worksheet, and it handles the heavy lifting for deleting that row.
Getting or setting cell data is just as simple:
ws.Cell(2, 2).Value = "Initial Value";
or alternatively
ws.Cell("B2").Value = "Value;
They also have type specific value assignment like this:
ws.Cell("B2").SetValue<T>(object);
The documentation is very thorough, and you can get the package through nuget (note it requires the DocumentFormat.OpenXML package installed as well)
EDIT:
I missed the part about multiple worksheets so here it is. The XLWorkbook type has a property Worksheets, which is an enumerable of all the worksheets in the workbook. Use this to get the worksheets you want to delete rows on

How to NOT skip empty rows when reading Excel sheet?

I am using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel to read an Excel file.
The problem I am having is that when reading, it counts the first row that has information as row 1. So, if the first row to have information is row 3, it counts that as the first row. This is a problem because the Excel sheets sometimes have data on the first 2 rows, sometimes they don't. But the data I need to read always starts on the third row.
Here is the routine I am using to read the sheets:
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application exl = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
Workbooks wkbs = exl.Workbooks;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook wkb = null;
Sheets shts;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet wks = null;
// load work book
//wkb = wkbs.Open(races_data_path, 0, true, 5, "", "", true, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlPlatform.xlWindows, "\t", false, false, 0, true, 1, 0);//oMissing
wkb = wkbs.Open(races_data_path, Type.Missing, true, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);//oMissing
shts = wkb.Sheets;
wks = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet)shts.get_Item(Properties.Settings.Default.excel_worksheet);
// read lines from worksheet
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range range = wks.UsedRange;
for (int rCnt = 1; rCnt <= range.Rows.Count; rCnt++)
{
try
{
object[,] values = (object[,])range.Value2;
if (Convert.ToString(values[rCnt, 4]) != "")
{
//Console.WriteLine(String.Format("Ldd: {0} {1} {2}", Convert.ToInt16(values[rCnt, 2]), Convert.ToInt16(values[rCnt, 3]), Convert.ToString(values[rCnt, 4])));
if (races[Convert.ToInt16(values[rCnt, 1])] == null) races[Convert.ToInt16(values[rCnt, 1])] = new RaceObject();
races[Convert.ToInt16(values[rCnt, 1])].add_racer(Convert.ToInt16(values[rCnt, 2]), Convert.ToInt16(values[rCnt, 3]), Convert.ToString(values[rCnt, 4]), Convert.ToString(values[rCnt, 7]));
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
data_loaded = false;
rCnt = range.Rows.Count;
}
}
This example, you can see the loop count starts at '1'. This was for reading a sheet where the first 2 lines of the sheet were empty. If the first 2 lines have data, then this loop only works if I change the count start to '3'.
For example:
The start value = 1 if the sheet looks like this:
no data
no data
has data
has data
has data
The start value = 3 if the sheet looks like this:
has unnecessary data
has unnecessary data
has data
has data
has data

Option 1: Add something to the first cell immediately before doing the rest: wks.cells(1, 1).value = "'" & wks.cells(1, 1).value This will extend the usedRange to the first cell.
Then the data will always start on the third row and you can easily always skip the first two rows.
Option 2: You can also use wks.UsedRange.Cells(1, 1).Row to see whether the first row is 1 or 3. Then you can adjust whether you use those rows or not.
(Edited post based on comments)

Insert Array into Excel Cell

I want to insert an Array of characters into one column of Excel. I normally use something like this to just add a normal string:
lCommand.CommandText += "\"" + row["source"].ToString().Replace("\"", "\"\"").Replace(" ", " ") + "\",";
How would I add an Array of strings to a Column of Excel? Thanks!

See this article:
Fun with Excel--setting a range of cells via an array
I recommend that you read the (short) article, but as a spoiler:
Excel.Range r = this.Range["B2", "B4"];
object[,] workingValues = new object[3, 1];
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
workingValues[i, 0] = i + 2; // 2,3,4
}
r.Value2 = workingValues;

You can open the File with C# and write to the cell you want.
First :
using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
This require you to have COM reference for Excel.
After this you need to open the file you want and set the value. After, you can close the file.
Here is an example. You can always loop for each rows or column for your array.
_Application docExcel = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
docExcel.Visible = false;
docExcel.DisplayAlerts = false;
_Workbook workbooksExcel = docExcel.Workbooks.Open(#"C:\test.xlsx", Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
_Worksheet worksheetExcel = (_Worksheet)workbooksExcel.ActiveSheet;
((Range)worksheetExcel.Cells["1", "A"]).Value2 = "aa";
((Range)worksheetExcel.Cells["1", "B"]).Value2 = "bb";
workbooksExcel.Save();
workbooksExcel.Close(false, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
docExcel.Application.DisplayAlerts = true;
docExcel.Application.Quit();
Edit:
You can use the Dynamic keyword if you do not want all those Type.Missing parameter :
_Application docExcel = new Application{Visible = false};
dynamic workbooksExcel = docExcel.Workbooks.Open(#"C:\test.xlsx");
var worksheetExcel = (_Worksheet)workbooksExcel.ActiveSheet;
((Range)worksheetExcel.Cells["1", "A"]).Value2 = "test1";
((Range)worksheetExcel.Cells["1", "B"]).Value2 = "test2";
workbooksExcel.Save();
workbooksExcel.Close(false);
docExcel.Application.Quit();

How to read data from Excel file in C#?

I create an Excel file from c# with data validation-it seem like combo with chosen possibility
string mList1 = "=ProductCode";
oRng = oSheet.get_Range("H8", "H9");
oRng.Name = "ProductCode";
int t = dt.Rows.Count + 2;
string st = "F" + t;
oRng = oSheet.get_Range("F2", st);
oRng.Validation.Add(XlDVType.xlValidateList,
XlDVAlertStyle.xlValidAlertStop,
Missing.Value, mList1, Missing.Value);
Now I want to read the Excel file and also the chosen item from the combo. I have successfully read all the data but the data validation.
Read the data-
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application ExcelObj = null;
ExcelObj = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook theWorkbook = ExcelObj.Workbooks.Open("C:\\Documents and Settings\\rachelg\\My Documents\\xxx.xls"
,Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing,
Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Sheets sheets = theWorkbook.Worksheets;
Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet worksheet = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet)sheets.get_Item(1);
for(int x = 1; x <= 5; x++)
{
string sd = ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)worksheet.Cells[x, 1]).Text.ToString();
System.Console.WriteLine(sd);//this one column
}
in different column I have the data validation but I don't know to access into it.

That seems a bit much for what is largely a simple operation.
Whilst not answering your question directly, this post I made a while back might help: accessing data record from Excel in VB.NET.