Excel ADO.NET Provider
SQL-based Access to Excel through ADO.NET for your custom .NET applications and SSAS.
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The Excel ADO.NET Data Provider enables user to easily connect to Excel data from .NET applications. Easily connect .NET applications with real-time data from Excel spreadsheets. Use Excel to manage the data that powers your applications.
Excel
Excel .NET Connectivity Features
- Access Excel data either as an entire worksheet or from discrete ranges of data within a worksheet
- Represent discrete blocks of data as tables through automatic detection or by manually specifying ranges of data
- Optionally specify if the first row of data should be used for field names
- Read tables that are oriented horizontally or vertically
- Support for Excel XLSX file format, 2007 and above
- Connect to live Microsoft Excel data, for real-time data access with the Microsoft Excel ADO.NET Provider
- Full support for data aggregation and complex JOINs in SQL queries
- Secure connectivity through modern cryptography, including TLS 1.2, SHA-256, ECC, etc.
- Generate table schema automatically based on existing Microsoft Excel data or manually for greater control of the content you need
- Seamless integration with leading BI, reporting, and ETL tools and with custom applications via the Excel Connector.
Target Service, API
The ADO.NET driver can connect with data on Microsoft Excel. The Excel file can be the ones on your local machine. We also support Excel files stored on a remote environment such as Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen1, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 SSL, Azure Files, Box, Dropbox, FTP, FTPS, Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, HDFS, HDFS Secure, HTTP, HTTPS, IBM Object Storage Source, OneDrive, OneLake, Oracle Cloud Storage, SFTP, or SharePoint.
Schema, Data Model
CData Microsoft Excel ADO.NET Driver supports the Office Open XML+ spreadsheets used by Microsoft Excel 2007 and later. currently supports .xlsx and .xlsm files. However, only read operations are supported for .xlsm files. Modifying data operations for .xlsm may cause loss of or damage to macros.
Key Objects
The ADO.NET Driver for Microsoft Excel allows you to manipulate Excel files in a variety of ways. The driver supports reading data vertically and horizontally as well as from user-defined ranges and named ranges. Refer to Selecting Data and Modifying Data for examples of different ways of querying and modifying spreadsheet data.
Operations
SELECT operations with filtering and JOINS are supported.
Supports UPDATE, INSERT, and DELETE operations for local Excel file. For Excel files stored on remote storage, only SELECT operations are supported.
Authentication
The driver supports multiple AuthScheme required to securely connect to Excel files in various remote services.
Specific feature or properties
AggregateFiles, Null handling, Formula handling, Recalculate, data type detection and many strong feature to deal with Excel data.
See what you can do with Excel ADO.NET provider
Use Excel from SQL Server Analysis Service (SSAS) multi-dimensional cubes. Keep your analytical data modeling and access to any source including cloud and on-premises.
The Excel ADO.NET Provider allows developers to build applications that connect to Excel using familiar SQL and Entity Framework. Integrate Excel to your mission -critical applications or create easy side-by-side applications.
You can connect from ADO.NET compliant low-code development tools:
You can connect Excel from .NET-based reporting and analytics tools:
Standard ADO.NET Access to Excel
The Excel ADO.NET Provider offers the most natural way to access Excel data from any .NET application. Simply use Excel Data Provider objects to connect and access data just as you would access any traditional database. You will be able to use the Excel Data Provider through Visual Studio Server Explorer, in code through familiar classes, and in data controls like DataGridView, GridView, DataSet, etc.
The CData ADO.NET Provider for Excel hides the complexity of accessing data and provides additional powerful security features, smart caching, batching, socket management, and more.
Working with DataAdapters, DataSets, DataTables, etc.
The Excel Data Provider has the same ADO.NET architecture as the native .NET data providers for SQL Server and OLEDB, including: ExcelConnection, ExcelCommand, ExcelDataAdapter, ExcelDataReader, ExcelDataSource, ExcelParameter, etc. Because of this you can now access Excel data in an easy, familiar way.
For example:
using (ExcelConnection conn = new ExcelConnection("...")) {
string select = "SELECT * FROM ExcelSheet";
ExcelCommand cmd = new ExcelCommand(select, conn);
ExcelDataAdapter adapter = new ExcelDataAdapter(cmd);
using (adapter) {
DataTable table = new DataTable();
adapter.Fill(table);
...
}
}
More Than Read-Only: Full Update/CRUD Support
Excel Data Provider goes beyond read-only functionality to deliver full support for Create, Read, Update, and Delete operations (CRUD). Your end-users can interact with the data presented by the Excel Data Provider as easily as interacting with a database table.
using (ExcelConnection connection = new ExcelConnection(connectionString)) {
ExcelDataAdapter dataAdapter = new ExcelDataAdapter(
"SELECT Id, Where FROM ExcelSheet", connection);
dataAdapter.UpdateCommand = new ExcelCommand(
"UPDATE ExcelSheet SET Where = @Where " +
"WHERE Id = @ID", connection);
dataAdapter.UpdateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Where", "Where");
dataAdapter.UpdateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Id", "80000173-1387137645");
DataTable ExcelSheetTable = new DataTable();
dataAdapter.Fill(ExcelSheetTable);
DataRow firstrow = ExcelSheetTable.Rows[0];
firstrow["Where"] = "New Location";
dataAdapter.Update(ExcelSheetTable);
}
ADO.NET Provider Performance
With traditional approaches to remote access, performance bottlenecks can spell disaster for applications. Regardless if an application is created for internal use, a commercial project, web, or mobile application, slow performance can rapidly lead to project failure. Accessing data from any remote source has the potential to create these problems. Common issues include:
- Network Connections - Slow network connections and latency issues are common in mobile applications.
- Service Delays - Delays due to service interruptions, resulting in server hardware or software updates.
- Large Data - Intentional or unintentional requests for large amounts of data.
- Disconnects - Complete loss of network connectivity.
The CData ADO.NET Provider for Excel solves many of these issues with support for replication queries that can be used to sync data to local databases, greatly improving the performance and dramatically reduce application bottlenecks.
More information about ADO.NET Provider performance capabilities are available in the included documentation.
Visual Studio Integration & Server Explorer
Working with the new Excel ADO.NET Provider is easy. As a fully-managed .NET Data Provider, the Excel Data Provider integrates seamlessly with the Visual Studio development environment as well as any .NET application.
As an ADO.NET Data Provider, Excel ADO.NET Provider can be used to access and explore Microsoft Excel data directly from the Visual Studio Server Explorer.
It's easy. As a standard ADO.NET adapter, developers can connect the Server Explorer to Excel ADO.NET Provider just like connecting to any standard database.
- Add a new Data Connection from the Server Explorer and select the Microsoft Excel Data Source
- Configure the basic connection properties to access your Microsoft Excel account data.
Explore all of the data available! Excel ADO.NET Provider makes it easy to access live Microsoft Excel data from Visual Studio.
- After configuring the connection, explore the feeds, views, and services provided by the Microsoft Excel Data Source.
- These constructs return live Microsoft Excel data that developers can work with directly from within Visual Studio!
Developer Integration: Databind to Excel
Connecting Web, Desktop, and Mobile .NET applications with Microsoft Excel is just like working with SQL Server. It is even possible to integrate Excel ADO.NET Provider into applications without writing code.
Developers are free to access the Excel ADO.NET Provider in whatever way they like best. Either visually through the Visual Studio Winforms or Webforms designers, or directly through code.
- Developers can connect the Microsoft Excel Data Source directly to form components by configuring the object's smart
tags.
- Add a new Data Connection from the Server Explorer and select the Microsoft Excel Data Source. Then, select the
feed, view, or services you would like to connect the object to.
Done! It's just like connecting to SQL Server.
- Once the object is bound to the data source, applications can easily interact with Microsoft Excel data with full
read/write (CRUD) support.
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