Connection strings for Excel 2007

ACE OLEDB 12.0

Type OLE DB Provider
 Usage Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0
 Manufacturer Microsoft
More info and provider downloads

Set example values

Xlsx files

This one is for connecting to Excel 2007 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

This one is for connecting to Excel 2007 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

This one is for connecting to Excel 2007 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";

Important note!
The quota " in the string needs to be escaped using your language specific escape syntax.
c#, c++   \"
VB6, VBScript   ""
xml (web.config etc)   "
or maybe use a single quota '.

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

 
 

Microsoft Excel 2007 ODBC Driver

Type ODBC Driver
 Usage Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)
 Manufacturer Microsoft
More info and driver downloads

Set example values

Standard

    
Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)};DBQ=C:\MyExcel.xlsx;
 
 

.NET xlReader for Microsoft Excel

Type .NET Framework Class Library
 Usage VM.xPort.ExcelClient.ExcelConnection
 Manufacturer xPortTools
More info and class library downloads

Set example values

Excel file with header row

    
Data Source =c:\myExcelFile.xlsx;HDR=yes;Format=xlsx;
 
 

Excel file without header row

    
Data Source =c:\myExcelFile.xlsx;HDR=no;Format=xlsx;
 
 

.NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC

Type .NET Framework Wrapper Class Library
 Usage System.Data.Odbc.OdbcConnection
 Manufacturer Microsoft
More info and wrapper class library downloads

Set example values

Use an ODBC driver from .NET

    
Driver={any odbc driver's name};OdbcKey1=someValue;OdbcKey2=someValue;

See the respective ODBC driver's connection strings options. The .net OdbcConnection will just pass on the connection string to the specified ODBC driver. Read more here.

 
 

.NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB

Type .NET Framework Wrapper Class Library
 Usage System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection
 Manufacturer Microsoft
More info and wrapper class library downloads

Set example values

Use an OLE DB provider from .NET

    
Provider=any oledb provider's name;OledbKey1=someValue;OledbKey2=someValue;

See the respective OLEDB provider's connection strings options. The .net OleDbConnection will just pass on the connection string to the specified OLEDB provider. Read more here.

 
 

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