c# - Best /Fastest way to read an Excel Sheet into a DataTable?

Question

I'm hoping someone here can point me in the right direction - I'm trying to create a fairly robust utility program to read the data from an Excel sheet (may be .xls OR .xlsx) into a DataTable as quickly and leanly as possible.

I came up with this routine in VB (although I'd be just as happy with a good C# answer):

Public Shared Function ReadExcelIntoDataTable(ByVal FileName As String, ByVal SheetName As String) As DataTable
    Dim RetVal As New DataTable

    Dim strConnString As String
    strConnString = "Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)};DBQ=" & FileName & ";"

    Dim strSQL As String 
    strSQL = "SELECT * FROM [" & SheetName & "$]"

    Dim y As New Odbc.OdbcDataAdapter(strSQL, strConnString)

    y.Fill(RetVal)

    Return RetVal

End Function

I'm wondering if this is the best way to do it or if there are better / more efficent ways (or just more intelligent ways - Maybe Linq / native .Net providers) to use instead?

ALSO, just a quick and silly additional question - Do I need to include code such as y.Dispose() and y = Nothing or will that be taken care of since the variable should die at the end of the routine, right??

Thanks!!

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/14261655/best-fastest-way-to-read-an-excel-sheet-into-a-datatable

Answer 1

If you want to do the same thing in C# based on Ciarán Answer

string sSheetName = null;
string sConnection = null;
DataTable dtTablesList = default(DataTable);
OleDbCommand oleExcelCommand = default(OleDbCommand);
OleDbDataReader oleExcelReader = default(OleDbDataReader);
OleDbConnection oleExcelConnection = default(OleDbConnection);

sConnection = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\Test.xls;Extended Properties="Excel 12.0;HDR=No;IMEX=1"";

oleExcelConnection = new OleDbConnection(sConnection);
oleExcelConnection.Open();

dtTablesList = oleExcelConnection.GetSchema("Tables");

if (dtTablesList.Rows.Count > 0) 
{
    sSheetName = dtTablesList.Rows[0]["TABLE_NAME"].ToString();
}

dtTablesList.Clear();
dtTablesList.Dispose();


if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(sSheetName)) {
    oleExcelCommand = oleExcelConnection.CreateCommand();
    oleExcelCommand.CommandText = "Select * From [" + sSheetName + "]";
    oleExcelCommand.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
    oleExcelReader = oleExcelCommand.ExecuteReader();
    nOutputRow = 0;

    while (oleExcelReader.Read())
    {
    }
    oleExcelReader.Close();
}
oleExcelConnection.Close();

here is another way read Excel into a DataTable without using OLEDB very quick Keep in mind that the file ext would have to be .CSV for this to work properly

private static DataTable GetDataTabletFromCSVFile(string csv_file_path)
{
    csvData = new DataTable(defaultTableName);
    try
    {
        using (TextFieldParser csvReader = new TextFieldParser(csv_file_path))
        {
            csvReader.SetDelimiters(new string[]
            {
                tableDelim 
            });
            csvReader.HasFieldsEnclosedInQuotes = true;
            string[] colFields = csvReader.ReadFields();
            foreach (string column in colFields)
            {
                DataColumn datecolumn = new DataColumn(column);
                datecolumn.AllowDBNull = true;
                csvData.Columns.Add(datecolumn);
            }

            while (!csvReader.EndOfData)
            {
                string[] fieldData = csvReader.ReadFields();
                //Making empty value as null
                for (int i = 0; i < fieldData.Length; i++)
                {
                    if (fieldData[i] == string.Empty)
                    {
                        fieldData[i] = string.Empty; //fieldData[i] = null
                    }
                    //Skip rows that have any csv header information or blank rows in them
                    if (fieldData[0].Contains("Disclaimer") || string.IsNullOrEmpty(fieldData[0]))
                    {
                        continue;
                    }
                }
                csvData.Rows.Add(fieldData);
            }
        }
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
    }
    return csvData;
}