The Excel Data Provider for ADO.NET offers the most natural way to access Excel Spreadsheets data from any .NET application. Simply use Excel Data Provider objects to connect and access data just as you would access any traditional database. You will be able to use the Excel Data Provider through Visual Studio Server Explorer, in code through familiar classes, and in data controls like DataGridView, GridView, DataSet, etc.

Using the Excel Data Provider

The Excel Data Provider wraps the complexity of accessing Excel Spreadsheets services in an easy-to-integrate, fully-managed ADO.NET Data Provider. Applications then access Excel Spreadsheets through the Excel Data Provider with simple Transact-SQL.

 

The Excel Data Provider for ADO.NET hides the complexity of accessing data and provides additional powerful security features, smart caching, batching, socket management, and more.

Working with DataAdapters, DataSets, DataTables, etc.

The Excel Data Provider has the same ADO.NET architecture as the native .NET data providers for SQL Server and OLEDB including: Excel SpreadsheetsConnection, Excel SpreadsheetsCommand, Excel SpreadsheetsDataAdapter, Excel SpreadsheetsDataReader, Excel SpreadsheetsDataSource, Excel SpreadsheetsParameter, and Excel SpreadsheetsTransaction. Because of this you can now access Excel Spreadsheets data in an easy, familiar way.

For example:

using (ExcelConnection conn = new ExcelConnection("...")) {
	string select = "SELECT * FROM Customers_Sheet1";
	ExcelCommand cmd = new ExcelCommand(select, conn);
	ExcelDataAdapter adapter = new ExcelDataAdapter(cmd);
	using (adapter) {
		DataTable table = new DataTable();
		adapter.Fill(table);		
		...
	}
}

More Than Read-Only: Full Update/CRUD Support

Excel Data Provider goes beyond read-only functionality to deliver full support for Create, Read Update, and Delete operations (CRUD). Your end-users can interact with the data presented by the Excel Data Provider as easily as interacting with a database table.

using (ExcelConnection connection = new ExcelConnection(connectionString)) {
	ExcelDataAdapter dataAdapter = new ExcelDataAdapter(
	"SELECT Id, Where FROM Customers_Sheet1", connection);
  
	dataAdapter.UpdateCommand = new ExcelCommand(
		"UPDATE Customers_Sheet1 SET Where = @Where " +
		"WHERE Id = @ID", connection);

	dataAdapter.UpdateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Where", "Where");
	dataAdapter.UpdateCommand.Parameters.AddWithValue("@Id", "80000173-1387137645");

	DataTable Customers_Sheet1Table = new DataTable();
	dataAdapter.Fill(Customers_Sheet1Table);

	DataRow firstrow = Customers_Sheet1Table.Rows[0];
	firstrow["Where"] = "New Location";

	dataAdapter.Update(Customers_Sheet1Table);
}