Have your AutoFit and Eat it Too
It's irritating to have to 2-click in the column widths of a spreadsheet so that the columns will widen out to display all their content.
You can take care of this by calling AutoFit, like so:
_xlSheet.Columns.AutoFit();
However, sometimes one or two "rogue" values in a column make that column go ultra-wide, and you have to drag the column way over to the left so as to see more of the data. You can overcome this Catch-22 by using both AutoFit and then, afterwards, specifying the width of any problematic columns. Here's the code for how to do that, which assumes column 1 is the one to be reined in, and 42 is the width you want it to assume:
private Worksheet _xlSheet;
private static readonly int ITEMDESC_COL = 1;
private static readonly int WIDTH_FOR_ITEM_DESC_COL = 42;
. . .
_xlSheet.Columns.AutoFit();
((Range)_xlSheet.Cells[ITEMDESC_COL, ITEMDESC_COL]).EntireColumn.ColumnWidth = _
WIDTH_FOR_ITEM_DESC_COL;
Note: As an added nicety, you can have the over-long content wrap (especially useful if they are in a Merged (multi-row) range) like so (where "range" is the Range you defined when populating the column):
range.WrapText = true;
Note: You need to add the Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel assembly for this code to work.
I am in the process of morphing from a software developer into a portrayer of Mark Twain. My monologue (or one-man play, entitled "The Adventures of Mark Twain: As Told By Himself" and set in 1896) features Twain giving an overview of his life up till then. The performance includes the relating of interesting experiences and humorous anecdotes from Twain's boyhood and youth, his time as a riverboat pilot, his wild and woolly adventures in the Territory of Nevada and California, and experiences as a writer and world traveler, including recollections of meetings with many of the famous and powerful of the 19th century - royalty, business magnates, fellow authors, as well as intimate glimpses into his home life (his parents, siblings, wife, and children).
Peripatetic and picaresque, I have lived in eight states; specifically, besides my native California (where I was born and where I now again reside) in chronological order: New York, Montana, Alaska, Oklahoma, Wisconsin, Idaho, and Missouri.
I am also a writer of both fiction (for which I use a nom de plume, "Blackbird Crow Raven", as a nod to my Native American heritage - I am "½ Cowboy, ½ Indian") and nonfiction, including a two-volume social and cultural history of the U.S. which covers important events from 1620-2006: http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/blackbirdcraven
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