C# - Retrieve Excel Workbook Sheet Names.

Introduction

There are many examples using ADO.NET to query an Excel Workbook but they all have a limitation, you must know the worksheet name. This might work if you know the name of the worksheet, but what if you don't? If your program is dynamic and your sheet names differ for each Excel workbook, you need a way to extract the names of the sheets. The code example provides you with a way to retrieve the work sheet names.

The following method returns a string array containing the names of the sheets. The method also shows how to loop through the array. The method has one input parameter excelFile which is the location of the Excel file.

Code Example

/// <summary>

/// This mehtod retrieves the excel sheet names from 

/// an excel workbook.

/// </summary>

/// <param name="excelFile">The excel file.</param>

/// <returns>String[]</returns>

private String[] GetExcelSheetNames(string excelFile)
{
  OleDbConnection objConn = null;
  System.Data.DataTable dt = null;

  try
  {
    // Connection String. Change the excel file to the file you

    // will search.

    String connString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;" + 
        "Data Source=" + excelFile + ";Extended Properties=Excel 8.0;";
    // Create connection object by using the preceding connection string.

    objConn = new OleDbConnection(connString);
    // Open connection with the database.

    objConn.Open();
    // Get the data table containg the schema guid.

    dt = objConn.GetOleDbSchemaTable(OleDbSchemaGuid.Tables, null);
 
    if(dt == null)
    {
      return null;
    }

    String[] excelSheets = new String[dt.Rows.Count];
    int i = 0;

    // Add the sheet name to the string array.

    foreach(DataRow row in dt.Rows)
    {
      excelSheets[i] = row["TABLE_NAME"].ToString();
      i++;
    }

    // Loop through all of the sheets if you want too...

    for(int j=0; j < excelSheets.Length; j++)
    {
      // Query each excel sheet.

    }

    return excelSheets;
  }
  catch(Exception ex)
  {
    return null;
  }
  finally
  {
    // Clean up.

    if(objConn != null)
    {
      objConn.Close();
      objConn.Dispose();
    }
    if(dt != null)
    {
      dt.Dispose();
    }
  }
}

Enjoy...