C# Read XLSX File

1. Get IronXL for Your Project

Use IronXL in your project for a simple way to work with Excel file formats in C#. You can either install IronXL via direct download or alternatively you can use NuGet Install for Visual Studio. The software is free for development.

Install-Package IronXL.Excel

How to Tutorial

2. Load WorkBook

WorkBook is the class of IronXL whose object provides full access to the Excel file and its whole functions. For example, if we want to access an Excel file, we'd use the code:

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-load-workbook.cs

using IronXL;

// Load the workbook
WorkBook workBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx"); // Excel file path

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

In the above code, the WorkBook.Load() function loads sample.xlsx into workBook. Any type of function can be performed on workBook by accessing the specific WorkSheet of an Excel file.

3. Access Specific WorkSheet

To access a specific WorkSheet of an Excel file, IronXL provides the WorkSheet class. It can be used in a few different ways:

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-get-worksheet.cs

using IronXL;

// Access sheet by name
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.GetWorkSheet("Sheet1");

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

workBook is the WorkBook that is declared in the above portion.

OR

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-worksheet-index.cs

using IronXL;

// Access sheet by index
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.WorkSheets[0];

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

OR

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-default-worksheet.cs

using IronXL;

// Access the default worksheet
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.DefaultWorkSheet;

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

OR

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-first-worksheet.cs

using IronXL;
using System.Linq;

// Access the first worksheet
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.WorkSheets.First();

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

OR

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-first-or-default-worksheet.cs

using IronXL;
using System.Linq;

// Access the first or default worksheet
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.WorkSheets.FirstOrDefault();

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

After getting ExcelSheet workSheet, you can get any type of data from it and perform all Excel functions on it.

4. Access Data from WorkSheet

Data can be accessed from ExcelSheet workSheet with this process:

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-get-data.cs

using IronXL;

// Accessing data as a string
string dataString = workSheet["A1"].ToString();

// Accessing data as an integer
int dataInt = workSheet["B1"].Int32Value;

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

It is also possible to get data from multiple cells of a specific column.

foreach (var cell in workSheet["A2:A10"])
{
    Console.WriteLine("Value is: {0}", cell.Text);
}

foreach (var cell in workSheet["A2:A10"])
{
    Console.WriteLine("Value is: {0}", cell.Text);
}

For Each cell In workSheet("A2:A10")
	Console.WriteLine("Value is: {0}", cell.Text)
Next cell

This will display the values from cell A2 to A10.

A complete code example of the specifics above is provided here.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-log-data.cs

using IronXL;
using System;

// Load an Excel file
WorkBook workBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx");
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.GetWorkSheet("Sheet1");

// Specify the range
foreach (var cell in workSheet["B2:B10"])
{
    Console.WriteLine("Value is: {0}", cell.Text);
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

It will display the following result:

With the Excel file Sample.xlsx :

We can see how effortless it is to use Excel file data in your project using these methodologies.

5. Perform Functions on Data

It is very straightforward to access filtered data from an Excel WorkSheet by applying aggregate functions like Sum, Min, or Max using the following code:

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-aggregate-function.cs

using IronXL;

// Apply aggregate functions
decimal sum = workSheet["G2:G10"].Sum(); // Sum of cells from G2 to G10
decimal min = workSheet["G2:G10"].Min(); // Minimum value in cells from G2 to G10
decimal max = workSheet["G2:G10"].Max(); // Maximum value in cells from G2 to G10

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

If you want more details, check out our in-depth tutorial on How to Write C# Excel Files with specifics on aggregate functions.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-min-max.cs

using IronXL;
using System;

// Load the Excel workbook
WorkBook workBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx");

// Get the specified WorkSheet
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.GetWorkSheet("Sheet1");

// Calculate sum, minimum, and maximum for a range of cells
decimal sum = workSheet["G2:G10"].Sum();
decimal min = workSheet["G2:G10"].Min();
decimal max = workSheet["G2:G10"].Max();

// Output results
Console.WriteLine("Sum is: {0}", sum);
Console.WriteLine("Min is: {0}", min);
Console.WriteLine("Max is: {0}", max);

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

This code will display the following output:

And this is how the Excel file Sample.xlsx will look:

6. Read Excel WorkSheet as DataTable

Using IronXL, it is very easy to operate with an Excel WorkSheet as a DataTable.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-datatable.cs

using IronXL;
using System.Data;

// Convert worksheet to DataTable
DataTable dt = workSheet.ToDataTable();

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

If we want to use the first row of ExcelSheet as DataTable ColumnName then:

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-datatable-header.cs

using IronXL;
using System.Data;

// Convert worksheet to DataTable with the first row as column names
DataTable dt = workSheet.ToDataTable(true);

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

Thus, the Boolean parameter of ToDataTable() sets the first row as the column names of your DataTable. By default, its value is False.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-print-datatable.cs

using IronXL;
using System;
using System.Data;

// Load the Excel workbook
WorkBook workBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx");

// Get the specified WorkSheet
WorkSheet workSheet = workBook.GetWorkSheet("Sheet1");

// Convert WorkSheet to DataTable
DataTable dt = workSheet.ToDataTable(true); // Use first row as column names

// Iterate through rows and columns and display data
foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows) // Access rows
{
    for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++) // Access columns of corresponding row
    {
        Console.Write(row[i] + " ");
    }
    Console.WriteLine();
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

Using the above code, every cell value of the WorkSheet can be accessed and used as required.

7. Read Excel File as DataSet

IronXL provides a very simple function to use a complete Excel file (WorkBook) as a DataSet. Use the ToDataSet method to turn the whole workbook into DataSet. In this example, we will see how to use the Excel file as a DataSet.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-file-excel-to-dataset.cs

using IronXL;
using System;
using System.Data;

// Load the Excel workbook
WorkBook workBook = WorkBook.Load("sample.xlsx");

// Convert the WorkBook to a DataSet
DataSet ds = workBook.ToDataSet();

// Iterate through tables in the DataSet and display table names
foreach (DataTable dt in ds.Tables)
{
    Console.WriteLine(dt.TableName);
}

IRON VB CONVERTER ERROR developers@ironsoftware.com

The output of the above code will look like this:

And the Excel file Sample.xlsx will look like this:

In the above example, we see that we can easily parse an Excel file into a DataSet and employ it with every WorkSheet of an Excel file as a DataTable. Dive more into how to parse Excel as a DataSet here featuring code examples.

Let's see one more example of how to access each cell value of all ExcelSheets. Here, we can access each cell value of every WorkSheet of an Excel file.

:path=/static-assets/excel/content-code-examples/how-to/c-sharp-read-xlsx-all-excel-sheets.cs

// THIS CODE SNIPPET IS NOT AVAILABLE!

' THIS CODE SNIPPET IS NOT AVAILABLE!

Using the above example, it is very convenient to access each cell value of every WorkSheet of an Excel file.

For more on how to Read Excel Files Without Interop check out the code here.

Tutorial Quick Access

API Reference for IronXL

Read more about IronXL's features, classes, method fields, namespaces, and enums in the documentation.

API Reference for IronXL