Reading a Excel 2007 Spreadsheet in C#

Question

I've done some googling and there seems to be a plethora of tools for reading excel 2007 spreadsheets using c#. I'd like to know which one performs best and is easy to use.

Answer 1

Frankly, it depends on if you have Excel installed on the machine.

If you have Excel installed, using Microsofts Office APIs is as quick and ( for the price ) painless as you are going to get. That said, if you don't have Excel installed, the question gets much trickier.

Also, note, if you are installing to a web server that is available to the world, using Microsoft's Office APIs often isn't actually legal, as the end user needs to have an office license for you to be legal. If this is the case, and you are developing for redistribution or internet deployment, make sure that the library you are considering has no dependencies on the Office APIs, as their redistribution isn't actually legal either. If you need to, for example, provide a viewer for people that don't have Excel installed, you can't legally use the Office APIs, nor can you use 3rd Parties that depend on that layer. Compliant libraries will make it clear in their description that they don't depend on Excel.

Answer 2

It depends what you're trying to do with the spreadsheet.

If you want to read tabular data, OleDB is the best option.

If you want to read formatting or specific cells, you should use a third-party component. (I can't recommend a specific vendor)

You should avoid using Excel's COM object model unless you want to interact with an open window or print a spreadsheet.

Answer 3

I've had pretty good results with Koogra.

Answer 4

Check the Open XML SDK. It includes a "Productivity Tool" that lets you walk through the structure of a document to help write your code as well.

Answer 5

I looked into the Open XML Format SDK about a year ago and it seemed like a good alternative that does not require Office installed.

Answer 6

I have used GemBox and the Microsoft Office APIs to read in spreadsheets. I have had success with both options but I tend to like GemBox a bit more. It is fast and simple to implement but comes with a price tag.

Answer 7

You can try the following product:

free and open source project:

http://exceldatareader.codeplex.com/

commercial spreadsheet component:

http://www.smartxls.com