Free solution for reading/creating/updating excel files from .NET

Question

Has to be free. Has to support all versions of Excel files. Has to have C# .NET API.

I need to do all of the specified actions (reading/creating/updating).

Has anyone used any library l this kind sucessfully

Update:

I read a lot of bad things about Ole DB, and Interop is not an option since this is a web application running on a server.

Answer 1

Try to use OleDB http://stackoverflow.com/questions/15828/reading-excel-files-from-c

Answer 2

From a previous answer on a different question:

• You might consider using the Excel object model and COM interop to read the data from the Excel file into your application. Granted, this includes a dependency on Excel being installed, but it is a possibility. This article has some great code for getting started with reading Excel files in this way.
• A better way might be to use a library that doesn't have a dependency on Excel being installed on the local system. This answer suggests using the Excel Data Reader library, available on CodePlex.

Like I pointed out in my other answer, there are paid third-party libraries that will likely do exactly what you are looking for. I understand you want something that is free, but in my experience with free Excel libraries, you tend to need to do a good bit of extra work to get it to play the right way.

Answer 3

I'm a big fan of Aspose Cells. It does all you want but it isn't free. I don't know any other products that can fit all your needs (All Excel Versions, C# Api, Read/Write, etc)