Where does StreamCell live in the IronXL API?

StreamCell is a class in the IronXL namespace, shipped in IronXL.dll. It derives from Object and is produced by the IronXL streaming read API. Its seven members include ColumnIndex, ColumnLetter, Type, Value, Text, IsFormula, and a public constructor.

How do you read cell values from a large Excel file without loading it fully into memory?

Use the IronXL streaming API, which delivers one StreamCell per cell position. Inspect Type to determine the data kind, then read Value for the raw object or Text for the formatted string. Because StreamCell is immutable, memory stays flat regardless of worksheet size.

What is the difference between StreamCell and Cell in IronXL?

Cell is backed by the workbook and supports reading and writing values. StreamCell is an immutable snapshot produced during forward-only streaming: it cannot write values back, but it allows processing very large XLSX files with a minimal memory footprint.

How do you detect formula cells with StreamCell?

Check the IsFormula property. When true, the cell's value was computed by a worksheet formula rather than entered as a constant. The Value and Text properties still reflect the computed result.

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