Question

I have written some code based on a specification from my boss. A requirement was to import a lot of Excel data into the program. I did this by copying the used range of the Excel sheet to the Clipboard and then used that to write to the array. This was done using Interop. This does work well, and it’s code thats been in use for around 4months without any problems.

However, I wrote this code, without thinking too much at the beginning of my internship. I am now re-visiting it, in a quiet moment, and it got me thinking, is there a better (more efficient, elegant) way of doing this? Looking back now, it seems like a bit of a hack.

Thanks.

Answer 1

Using a c# driver you can read the excel file directly without using interop:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;
using System.IO;

namespace Immo.Areas.Administration.Controllers
{
    public class SomethingSometingExcelClass
    {
        public void DoSomethingWithExcel(string filePath)
        {

            List<DataTable> worksheets = ImportExcel(filePath);
            foreach(var item in worksheets){
                foreach (DataRow row in  item.Rows)
                {
                   //add to array
                }

            }
        }
        /// <summary>
        /// Imports Data from Microsoft Excel File.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="FileName">Filename from which data need to import</param>
        /// <returns>List of DataTables, based on the number of sheets</returns>
        private List<DataTable> ImportExcel(string FileName)
        {
            List<DataTable> _dataTables = new List<DataTable>();
            string _ConnectionString = string.Empty;
            string _Extension = Path.GetExtension(FileName);
            //Checking for the extentions, if XLS connect using Jet OleDB
            if (_Extension.Equals(".xls", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
            {
                _ConnectionString =
                    "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0; Data Source={0};Extended Properties=Excel 8.0";
            }
            //Use ACE OleDb
            else if (_Extension.Equals(".xlsx", StringComparison.CurrentCultureIgnoreCase))
            {
                _ConnectionString =
                    "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source={0};Extended Properties=Excel 8.0";
            }

            DataTable dataTable = null;

            using (OleDbConnection oleDbConnection =
                new OleDbConnection(string.Format(_ConnectionString, FileName)))
            {
                oleDbConnection.Open();
                //Getting the meta data information.
                //This DataTable will return the details of Sheets in the Excel File.
                DataTable dbSchema = oleDbConnection.GetOleDbSchemaTable(OleDbSchemaGuid.Tables_Info, null);
                foreach (DataRow item in dbSchema.Rows)
                {
                    //reading data from excel to Data Table
                    using (OleDbCommand oleDbCommand = new OleDbCommand())
                    {
                        oleDbCommand.Connection = oleDbConnection;
                        oleDbCommand.CommandText = string.Format("SELECT * FROM [{0}]",
                            item["TABLE_NAME"].ToString());
                        using (OleDbDataAdapter oleDbDataAdapter = new OleDbDataAdapter())
                        {
                            oleDbDataAdapter.SelectCommand = oleDbCommand;
                            dataTable = new DataTable(item["TABLE_NAME"].ToString());
                            oleDbDataAdapter.Fill(dataTable);
                            _dataTables.Add(dataTable);
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            return _dataTables;
        }
    }
}