Excel ADO.NET Provider

Read, Write, and Update Excel from .NET Apps.

Easily connect Microsoft Excel with BI, ETL, Reporting, and Custom Apps.


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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.

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
  • 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

Specifications

  • DataBind to Excel using standard Visual Studio wizards.
  • Comprehensive support for CRUD (Create, Read, Update, and Delete).
  • Supports ADO.NET Entity Framework (EF 5 & 6), LINQ to Datasets, etc.
  • Full Unicode support for data, parameter, & metadata.
  • Support for 32-bit and 64-bit operating systems.
  • Supports .NET Framework 4.0+ and .NET Standard 2.0 (.NET Core 2.1+, .NET 6.0).

Windows
macOS
Unix

AVAILABLE IN:
ADO.NET SUBSCRIPTIONS
225+ ADO.NET Drivers For Real-Time BI & Reporting.
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Where can I use the Excel ADO.NET Provider?

ADO.NET Access to Microsoft Excel

Full-featured and consistent SQL access to any supported data source through ADO.NET


  • Fully-managed .NET

    100% fully managed ADO.NET libraries supporting .NET Standard, .NET Core 2.0, & Xamarin.

  • Developer Friendly

    Seamless integration with all versions of Visual Studio.

  • Powerful ADO.NET Features

    Including support for ADO.NET Entity Framework (EF 5 & 6), ADO.NET 2.0, LINQ to Datasets, etc.

  • Replication and Caching

    Our replication and caching commands make it easy to copy data to local and cloud data stores such as Oracle, SQL Server, Google Cloud SQL, etc. The replication commands include many features that allow for intelligent incremental updates to cached data.

  • String, Date, Numeric SQL Functions

    The driver includes a library of 50 plus functions that can manipulate column values into the desired result. Popular examples include Regex, JSON, and XML processing functions.

  • Collaborative Query Processing

    Our drivers enhance the data source's capabilities by additional client side processing, when needed, to enable analytic summaries of data such as SUM, AVG, MAX, MIN, etc.

  • Easily Customizable and Configurable

    The data model exposed by our ADO.NET Providers can easily be customized to add or remove tables/columns, change data types, etc. without requiring a new build. These customizations are supported at runtime using human-readable schema files that are easy to edit.

  • Secure Connectivity

    Includes standard Enterprise-class security features such as TLS/ SSL data encryption for all client-server communications.

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:

  1. Network Connections - Slow network connections and latency issues are common in mobile applications.
  2. Service Delays - Delays due to service interruptions, resulting in server hardware or software updates.
  3. Large Data - Intentional or unintentional requests for large amounts of data.
  4. 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.