I stumbled upon this great article by Yuan Wang which allowed you to convert an XLS file into CSV in C# (Convert XLS into CSV). It was created and compiled using Visual Studio 2005. I copied the code and compiled it in VS 2008 and it compiled OK but when I ran it, I got the following exception:
C:\Documents and Settings\d205414\My Documents\Visual Studio 2008\Projects\XlsToCsv\XlsToCsv\obj\Release>XlsToCsv.exe
System.Data.OleDb.OleDbException: Could not find installable ISAM.
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnectionInternal..ctor(OleDbConnectionString cons
tr, OleDbConnection connection)
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnectionFactory.CreateConnection(DbConnectionOpti
ons options, Object poolGroupProviderInfo, DbConnectionPool pool, DbConnection o
wningObject)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.CreateNonPooledConnection(DbC
onnection owningConnection, DbConnectionPoolGroup poolGroup)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionFactory.GetConnection(DbConnection ow
ningConnection)
at System.Data.ProviderBase.DbConnectionClosed.OpenConnection(DbConnection ou
terConnection, DbConnectionFactory connectionFactory)
at System.Data.OleDb.OleDbConnection.Open()
at XlsToCsv.Program.convertExcelToCSV(String sourceFile, String worksheetName
, String targetFile) in C:\Documents and Settings\d205414\My Documents\Visual St
udio 2008\Projects\XlsToCsv\XlsToCsv\Program.cs:line 51
I made a few modifications to the source, to fix the exception but also allow the executable to accept parameters. Here’s the modified source code:
using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Data;
using System.Data.OleDb;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
namespace XlsToCsv
{
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
try
{
string sourceFile, worksheetName, targetFile, skipHeader;
sourceFile = args[0]; worksheetName = "Sheet1"; targetFile = args[1]; skipHeader = args[2];
convertExcelToCSV(sourceFile, worksheetName, targetFile, skipHeader);
}
catch
{
Console.WriteLine("USAGE: XlsToCsv [XLS File] [CSV File] [Skip Header? Yes/No]");
}
}
static void convertExcelToCSV(string sourceFile, string worksheetName, string targetFile, string skipHeader)
{
string strConn = @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" + @"Data Source=" + sourceFile + ";" + @"Extended Properties=""Excel 8.0;HDR=" + skipHeader + @";IMEX=1""";
OleDbConnection conn = null;
StreamWriter wrtr = null;
OleDbCommand cmd = null;
OleDbDataAdapter da = null;
try
{
conn = new OleDbConnection(strConn);
conn.Open();
cmd = new OleDbCommand("SELECT * FROM [" + worksheetName + "$]", conn);
cmd.CommandType = CommandType.Text;
wrtr = new StreamWriter(targetFile);
da = new OleDbDataAdapter(cmd);
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
da.Fill(dt);
for (int x = 0; x < dt.Rows.Count; x++)
{
string rowString = "";
for (int y = 0; y < dt.Columns.Count; y++)
{
rowString += "\"" + dt.Rows[x][y].ToString() + "\",";
}
wrtr.WriteLine(rowString);
}
Console.WriteLine("File converted successfully.");
}
catch
{
// Console.WriteLine(exc.ToString());
Console.WriteLine("USAGE: XlsToCsv [XLS File] [CSV File] [Skip Header? Yes/No]");
Console.ReadLine();
}
finally
{
if (conn.State == ConnectionState.Open)
conn.Close();
conn.Dispose();
cmd.Dispose();
da.Dispose();
wrtr.Close();
wrtr.Dispose();
}
}
}
}
Save the C# code and compile in Visual Studio 2008 (I used express edition myself).
To execute, call the following in command prompt:
USAGE: XlsToCsv [XLS File] [CSV File] [Skip Header? Yes/No]
eg.
XlsToCsv source.XLS output.CSV No
