Read excel file from a stream

Question

I need a way to read a Excel file from a stream. It doesn't seem to work with the ADO.NET way of doing things.

The scenario is that a user uploads a file through a FileUpload and i need to read some values from the file and import to a database.

For several reasons I can't save the file to disk, and there is no reason to do so either.

So, anyone know of a way to read a Excel file from a FileUpload stream?

Solution 1

It seems i found a soultion to the problem myself.

http://www.codeplex.com/ExcelDataReader

This library seems to work nicely and it takes a stream to read the excel file.

ExcelDataReader reader = new ExcelDataReader(ExcelFileUpload.PostedFile.InputStream);

Solution 2

This can be done easily with EPPlus.

//the excel sheet as byte array (as example from a FileUpload Control)
byte[] bin = FileUpload1.FileBytes;

//gen the byte array into the memorystream
using (MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream(bin))
using (ExcelPackage package = new ExcelPackage(ms))
{
    //get the first sheet from the excel file
    ExcelWorksheet sheet = package.Workbook.Worksheets[1];

    //loop all rows in the sheet
    for (int i = sheet.Dimension.Start.Row; i <= sheet.Dimension.End.Row; i++)
    {
        //loop all columns in a row
        for (int j = sheet.Dimension.Start.Column; j <= sheet.Dimension.End.Column; j++)
        {
            //do something with the current cell value
            string currentCellValue = sheet.Cells[i, j].Value.ToString();
        }
    }
}

Solution 3

SpreadsheetGear can do it:

SpreadsheetGear.IWorkbook workbook = SpreadsheetGear.Factory.GetWorkbookSet().Workbooks.OpenFromStream(stream);

You can try it for yourself with the free evaluation.

Disclaimer: I own SpreadsheetGear LLC