Excel column names

Question

What column names cannot be used when creating an Excel spreadsheet with ADO.

I have a statement that creates a page in a spreadsheet.

CREATE TABLE [TableName] (Column string, Column2 string);

I have found that using a column name of Date or Container will generate an error when the statement is executed.

Does anyone have a complete (or partial) list of words that cannot be used as column names? This is for use in a user-driven environment and it would be better to "fix" the columns than to crash.

My work-around for these is to replace any occurences of Date or Container with Date_ and Container_ respectively.

Answer 1

Here are the reserved words for MS Query:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/125948

Cell naming rules:

http://ezinearticles.com/?Rules-For-Naming-Cells-in-Microsoft-Excel&id=218607

Answer 2

It seems more like an issue with SQL reserved words. This is a good list

Answer 3

You can use brackets for any fieldname, e.g.:

CREATE TABLE [TableName] ([Date] string, [Container] string)

Full example:

using (OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\\temp\\test.xls;Extended Properties='Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes'"))
{
  conn.Open();
  OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand("CREATE TABLE [TableName] ([Date] string, [Container] string)", conn);
  cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
}