Sylvan.Data.Excel

A cross-platform .NET library for reading Excel data files in .xlsx, .xlsb and .xls formats. Provides readonly, row by row, forward-only access to the data. There is no support for creating or editing Excel files. Provides a familiar API via DbDataReader, which is ideal for accessing rectangular, tabular data sets. Exposes a single, unified API for accessing all supported file formats. The library is a purely managed implementation with no external dependencies.

This library is currently the fastest and lowest allocating library for reading Excel data files in the .NET ecosystem, for all supported formats.

If you encounter any issues while using this library, please report an issue in the github repository. Be aware that I will be unlikely to investigate any issue unless an example file can be provided reproducing the issue.

Installing

Sylvan.Data.Excel Nuget Package

Install-Package Sylvan.Data.Excel

Basic Usage

ExcelDataReader derives from DbDataReader, so it exposes an API that should be familiar for anyone who has worked with ADO.NET before. The field accessors allow reading data in an efficient, strongly-typed manner: GetString, GetInt32, GetDateTime, GetBoolean, etc.

The GetExcelDataType method allows inspecting the native Excel data type of a cell, which may vary from row to row. FieldCount, returns the number of columns in the header row, and doesn't change while processing each row in a sheet. RowFieldCount returns the number of fields in the current row, which might vary from row to row, and can be used to access cells in a "jagged", non-rectangular file.

Reading Raw Data

The ExcelDataReader provides a forward only, row by row access to the data in a worksheet. It allows iterating over sheets using the NextResult() method, and iterating over rows using the method. Fields are accessed using standard accessors, most commonly . is designed to not throw an exception, except in the case that a cell contains a formula error.