c# - Excel reading in ASP.NET : Data not being read if column has diff...

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Excel reading in ASP.NET : Data not being read if column has different data formats

I have an asp.net C# application where i am reading the contents of a spreadsheet using OLEDBConnection. I am using the below line of code to read from the excel spreadsheet. OleDbConnection con = new OleDbConnection(@"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" One of my column has data in various formats like strings,numbers,date etc in various rows.When running this ,When the data format is different,its not reading that value fromthe excel file. I searched in net a lot and found that we need to mention IMEX proprety in connection string.I added that,but no positive response !. After surfine a lot, ifound that Any built-in Excel driver will query the first 8 rows of a sheet and then make a determination (without your permission or knowledge) as to what type of column it is, thereby ignoring anything that doesnt meet this data type later in the sheet. http://www.mattjwilson.com/blog/2009/02/13/microsoft-excel-drivers-and-imex/ Is there anyway to get rid of this problem ?
c# asp.net excel oledbconnection

asked Nov 9 '09 at 6:59 Shyju 35.4k 32 127 246 Using IMEX=1 in the connection string will forcing the data source to treat all rows as strings (connectionstrings.com/excel). Can you explain what specific issues you are having? Kane Nov 9 '09 at 7:21

4 Answers
You are running into one of the many fun features of the JET engine. This one will basically sample all the data in each row for a single column and it will try to guess the data format. If you want your code to "just work" then there is a registry setting that will help with this. However be forewarned that this registry setting will affect how JET works with all imports on a system, not just your particular import. [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Excel] "ImportMixedTypes"="Text" "TypeGuessRows"=dword:00000000 This registry setting will tell JET to check the format of every row in a column before guessing a format. If it finds mixed content it will import the row as text. By default JET tests the first 25 rows when type guessing. Alternatively you can change TypeGuessRows to 1 and JET will check the first row only when type guessing. That means if the first row is a number and the second row is a string JET will assume all rows are numbers and you will not be able to read them using ADO.NET Another caveat: Make sure you are careful when editing your registry. You can decimate your system very quickly if you do not use care.
answered Dec 15 '09 at 19:31 havana59er 161 4 But this does not work for a public website which is hosted in a public server Shyju Dec 16 '09 at 9:58 @Shyju - If you want to work with the MS drivers (either Jet or ACE) you have no other option really than to either get the server admins to modify those registry settings or use a third-party solution. arcain Jan 12 '11 at 4:52

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c# - Excel reading in ASP.NET : Data not being read if column has diff...

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1699483/excel-reading-in-asp-net-...

Update: it seems like Microsoft really does not recommend using Excel COM services on servers. Still, many developers do, both on non-.NET (as my employer does) and .NET (see here) enviroment, as alternatives are costly. All problems are mostly solvable (aside from potential scalability and performance problems in high-volume applications and in some cases licence problems). Costly alternatives are using third-party solutions like this. You should not use OleDbConnection when you have data of different datatypes in one column. You can try to read from Excel using Excel COM/OLE API, for example (compiled from here, may contain errors): Include the following reference into the project : Microsoft Excel 10.0 Object Library Microsoft Office 10.0 Object Library Include the name space Excel. using Excel; ... Excel.ApplicationClass xl = new Excel.Application(); xl.Visible = false; xl.UserControl = false; Excel.Workbook theWorkbook = xl.Workbooks.Open( fileName, 0, true, 5, "", "", true, Excel.XlPlatform.xlWindows, "\t", false, false, 0, true); Excel.Sheets sheets = theWorkbook.Worksheets; Excel.Worksheet worksheet = (Excel.Worksheet)sheets.get_Item(1); System.Array myvalues; Excel.Range range = worksheet.get_Range("A1", "E1".ToString()); myvalues = (System.Array)range.Cells.Value; Important! You should free the resources used. From here: // Need all following code to clean up and extingush all references!!! theWorkbook.Close(null,null,null); xl.Workbooks.Close(); xl.Quit(); System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject (range); System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject (sheets); System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject (xl); System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject (worksheet); System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject (theWorkbook); worksheet=null; sheets=null; theWorkbook=null; xl = null; GC.Collect(); // force final cleanup!
edited Nov 9 '09 at 11:03 answered Nov 9 '09 at 8:29 Dmitry Osinovskiy 3,812 10 16

You shouldn't generally use COM Interop from a server application. Joe Nov 9 '09 at 8:43 Why? I can see no other way to deal with Excel, and working with Excel is a must in some kind of applications. Dmitry Osinovskiy Nov 9 '09 at 10:07 Added about cleanup - forgot the first time. Dmitry Osinovskiy Nov 9 '09 at 10:13

SpreadsheetGear for .NET can read, write, calculate, etc... Excel workbooks and allows you to access the underlying data (number, text, logical, error) of any cell or the formatted text of any cell using APIs such as IWorksheet.Cells[rowIndex, colIndex].Value or IWorksheet.Cells[rowIndex, colIndex].Text. There is no limitation based on the type of data in each column / cell. SpreadsheetGear is 100% safe .NET code (no COM interop, no unsafe native calls, etc...) so it is easier to deploy than other options - especially in server scenarios. You can see live samples here and download the free trial here. Disclaimer: I own SpreadsheetGear LLC
answered Nov 9 '09 at 20:53

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18-06-2013 13:07

c# - Excel reading in ASP.NET : Data not being read if column has diff...

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1699483/excel-reading-in-asp-net-...

Joe Erickson 4,209 16 26

Try this OleDBAdapter Excel QA I posted via stack overflow.

answered May 3 '11 at 20:25 Brian Wells 607 5 10

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