Class StreamCell

A single cell value read while forward-only streaming through an XLSX worksheet. Immutable snapshot: unlike Cell, a StreamCell is not backed by the workbook and cannot be used to write values back.

Inheritance
System.Object
StreamCell
Namespace: IronXL
Assembly: IronXL.dll
Syntax
public sealed class StreamCell : Object

Each position visited during a forward-only XLSX stream is represented as a StreamCell, an immutable snapshot that carries the column address, data type, raw value, and formatted text of one cell without loading the entire workbook into memory. When large files must be processed quickly and write-back is not required, StreamCell is the record a developer inspects inside a streaming read loop.

StreamCell surfaces seven members. ColumnIndex gives the zero-based integer column position, and ColumnLetter gives the familiar letter label such as "C" or "AA". Type is a StreamCellType discriminator that tells you whether the cell holds a number, a string, a boolean, a date, or an error, so a switch on Type replaces defensive casting. Value is the raw object for programmatic use, while Text is the pre-formatted string representation suitable for display or CSV output. IsFormula flags cells whose value was computed by a formula rather than entered directly, which matters when downstream logic needs to distinguish authored constants from derived results.

The constructor StreamCell(int columnIndex, StreamCellType type, object value, string text, bool isFormula) is public, so unit tests can build fixture cells without touching a real file. In production, instances arrive from the IronXL streaming API rather than being constructed by hand.

Because StreamCell is not backed by the workbook, it cannot write values back. It is a read-only record: once the streaming cursor advances, the previous StreamCell remains valid in memory but the worksheet position it described has been passed. This design keeps the memory footprint flat even for worksheets with hundreds of thousands of rows.

using IronXL;

WorkBook.StreamRead("large-report.xlsx", (StreamCell cell) =>
{
    if (cell.Type == StreamCellType.Number)
        Console.WriteLine($"{cell.ColumnLetter}: {cell.Value} ({cell.Text})");

    if (cell.IsFormula)
        Console.WriteLine($"  ^ formula cell at column {cell.ColumnIndex}");
});

The stream read how-to explains the full streaming workflow, the read Excel file guide covers standard in-memory reading for comparison, and the IronXL get-started page covers installation and licensing.

Constructors

StreamCell(Int32, StreamCellType, Object, String, Boolean)

Creates a new forward-only stream cell value.

Declaration
public StreamCell(int columnIndex, StreamCellType type, object value, string text, bool isFormula = false)
Parameters
Type Name Description
System.Int32 columnIndex

Zero-based column index of the cell.
StreamCellType type

The kind of value held by the cell. For a formula cell this is the type of the cached result (see isFormula).
System.Object value

The cell's value, typed according to type. null when type is Blank. For a formula cell this is the cached result value.
System.String text

The cell's displayed/raw text representation.
System.Boolean isFormula

true when the cell contains a formula; in that case value and type describe the cached result and its type.

Properties

ColumnIndex

Zero-based column index of the cell.

Declaration
public int ColumnIndex { get; }
Property Value
Type Description
System.Int32

ColumnLetter

The spreadsheet column letter (e.g. "A", "C", "AA") for ColumnIndex.

Declaration
public string ColumnLetter { get; }
Property Value
Type Description
System.String

IsFormula

true when the cell contains a formula; Value and Type are the cached result and its type.

Declaration
public bool IsFormula { get; }
Property Value
Type Description
System.Boolean

Text

The cell's displayed/raw text representation.

Declaration
public string Text { get; }
Property Value
Type Description
System.String

Type

The kind of value held by the cell. When IsFormula is true, this is the type of the formula's cached result rather than a distinct "formula" kind.

Declaration
public StreamCellType Type { get; }
Property Value
Type Description
StreamCellType

Value

The cell's value, typed according to Type. null when Type is Blank. When IsFormula is true, this is the formula's cached result value.

Declaration
public object Value { get; }
Property Value
Type Description
System.Object