How to iterate through Excel Worksheets only extracting data from specific columns

RobHurd picture RobHurd · Apr 22, 2013 · Viewed 38k times · Source

How do you iterate through an excel workbook with multiple worksheets only extracting data from say columns "C", "E" & "F"?

Here is the code I have thus far:

public static string ExtractData(string filePath)
    {
        Excel.Application excelApp = new Excel.Application();
        Excel.Workbook workBook = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(filePath);

        string data = string.Empty;

        int i = 0;
        foreach (Excel.Worksheet sheet in workBook.Worksheets)
        {
            data += "*******   Sheet " + i++.ToString() + "   ********\n";

            //foreach (Excel.Range row in sheet.UsedRange.Rows)
            //{
            //    data += row.Range["C"].Value.ToString();
            //}

            foreach (Excel.Range row in sheet.UsedRange.Rows)
            {
                foreach (Excel.Range cell in row.Columns)
                {
                    data += cell.Value + "   ";
                }
                data += "\n";
            }
        }

        excelApp.Quit();

        return data;
    }

Thank you very much for your time, any help is appreciated.

Answer

Zack Kay picture Zack Kay · Apr 24, 2013

Editing your method, here's something should do what you're looking for:

public static string ExtractData(string filePath)
{
    Excel.Application excelApp = new Excel.Application();
    Excel.Workbook workBook = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(filePath);
    int[] Cols = { 3, 5, 6 }; //Columns to loop
                 //C, E, F
    string data = string.Empty;

    int i = 0;
    foreach (Excel.Worksheet sheet in workBook.Worksheets)
    {
        data += "*******   Sheet " + i++.ToString() + "   ********\n";

        foreach (Excel.Range row in sheet.UsedRange.Rows)
        {
            foreach (int c in Cols) //changed here to loop through columns
            {
                data += sheet.Cells[row.Row, c].Value2.ToString() + "   ";
            }
            data += "\n";
        }
    }

    excelApp.Quit();

    return data;
}

I've created a int array to indicate which columns you'd like to read from, and then on each row we just loop through the array.

HTH, Z