Excel 2007 connection strings

CData ADO.NET Provider for Excel

Using an External Cache Provider

RSSBus drivers have the ability to cache data in a separate database such as SQL Server or MySQL instead of in a local file using the following syntax:

Cache Provider=Provider.Namespace;Cache Connection='Connection String to Cache Database';

Above is just an example to show how it works. It can be used both with "Auto Cache" and with "Cached Data Only / Offline Mode". Read more about using RSSBus Cache Provider in this article >>>

Microsoft ACE OLEDB 12.0

Xlsx files

Connect to Excel 2007 (and later) files with the Xlsx file extension. That is the Office Open XML format with macros disabled.

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:\myFolder\myExcel2007file.xlsx;Extended Properties="Excel 12.0 Xml;HDR=YES";

"HDR=Yes;" indicates that the first row contains columnnames, not data. "HDR=No;" indicates the opposite.

Treating data as text

Use this one when you want to treat all data in the file as text, overriding Excels column type "General" to guess what type of data is in the column.

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:\myFolder\myExcel2007file.xlsx;Extended Properties="Excel 12.0 Xml;HDR=YES;IMEX=1";

If you want to read the column headers into the result set (using HDR=NO even though there is a header) and the column data is numeric, use IMEX=1 to avoid crash.

To always use IMEX=1 is a safer way to retrieve data for mixed data columns. Consider the scenario that one Excel file might work fine cause that file's data causes the driver to guess one data type while another file, containing other data, causes the driver to guess another data type. This can cause your app to crash.

Xlsb files

Connect to Excel 2007 (and later) files with the Xlsb file extension. That is the Office Open XML format saved in a binary format. I e the structure is similar but it's not saved in a text readable format as the Xlsx files and can improve performance if the file contains a lot of data.

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:\myFolder\myBinaryExcel2007file.xlsb;Extended Properties="Excel 12.0;HDR=YES";

You can also use this connection string to connect to older 97-2003 Excel workbooks.

"HDR=Yes;" indicates that the first row contains columnnames, not data. "HDR=No;" indicates the opposite.

Xlsm files

Connect to Excel 2007 (and later) files with the Xlsm file extension. That is the Office Open XML format with macros enabled.

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:\myFolder\myExcel2007file.xlsm;Extended Properties="Excel 12.0 Macro;HDR=YES";

"HDR=Yes;" indicates that the first row contains columnnames, not data. "HDR=No;" indicates the opposite.