Does not display all Excel cell values in c# using OLEDB

Question

I have this problem on displaying Excel cell values on ac# listbox.

I have this Employees.xls file that contains four (4) columns ("Code", "LastName", "FirstName", "MiddleName").

Here's the exact contents:

Code   LastName   FirstName   MiddleName

1      Dela Cruz  Juan        Santos

2      Severino   Miguel      Reyes

Now using an Openfiledialog, I browsed the file and want to display the column headers on a listbox.

This should be the result:

Code

LastName

FirstName

MiddleName

The problem is when I browse the file, the column header "Code" was not displayed.

It displays only:

      <--- (Blank Space)

LastName

FirstName

MiddleName

I noticed that there's a space provided for the first value but the Text "Code" was not displayed.

This is the code that I used to get the cell values:

  private void btn_Browse_Click(object sender, EventArgs e) // Browse Button

     {
        Stream myStream = null;
        OpenFileDialog openFileDialog1 = new OpenFileDialog();

        openFileDialog1.InitialDirectory = "c:\\";
        openFileDialog1.Filter = "txt files (*.txt)|*.txt|All files (*.*)|*.*";
        openFileDialog1.FilterIndex = 2;
        openFileDialog1.RestoreDirectory = true;
        this.lbl_Path.Text = openFileDialog1.FileName;
        if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
         {
             try
             {
                 if ((myStream = openFileDialog1.OpenFile()) != null)
                 {
                     using (myStream)
                     {
                         this.lbl_Path.Text = openFileDialog1.FileName;
                         source = openFileDialog1.FileName.Replace(@"\", @"\\");
                         this.lbl_Path.Visible = true;
                         GetExcelSheetNames(source);
                         lst_Fields.Items.Clear();
                         string SheetName = sheet;
                         string query = "Select * From ["+SheetName+"]";
                         DataTable table = conExcel(query);
                         int i = 0;
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][0]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][1]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][2]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][3]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][4]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][5]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][6]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][7]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][8]));
                         lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][9]));
                     }

                 }
             }
             catch (Exception ex)
             {
                 MessageBox.Show("Error: Could not read file from disk. Original error: " + ex.Message);
             } 
         }
    }

    private DataTable conExcel(string query) // Connection to Excel
    {
        OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection();
        conn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + source + ";Extended Properties=\"Excel 12.0;HDR=NO;IMEX=-1;\"";
        conn.Open();
        OleDbDataAdapter da = new OleDbDataAdapter(query, conn);
        DataTable table = new DataTable();
        da.Fill(table);
        conn.Close();
        return table;
    }

    private String[] GetExcelSheetNames(string excelFile) //Getting the sheet name
    {
        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.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + source + ";Extended Properties=\"Excel 12.0;HDR=NO;IMEX=-1;\"";
            // 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++)
            {
                sheet = excelSheets[0];
            }

            return excelSheets;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            return null;
        }
        finally
        {
            // Clean up.
            if (objConn != null)
            {
                objConn.Close();
                objConn.Dispose();
            }
            if (dt != null)
            {
                dt.Dispose();
            }
        }
    }

Answer 1

Try changing IMEX=-1 to IMEX=1

If it still doesn't work, then try google about treating excel data as text.

Edit:

for XLS file, Excel 8.0; should be used in Extended Properties

Source: http://www.connectionstrings.com/ace-oledb-12-0/

Answer 2

Change your connection string in the conExcel method to be expecting headers.

conn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + source + ";Extended Properties=Excel 12.0;HDR=YES;";
// OR
conn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + source + ";Extended Properties=Excel 12.0;HDR=YES;IMEX=1";
//conn.ConnectionString = "Provider=Microsoft.Ace.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=" + source + ";Extended Properties=\"Excel 12.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=-1;\"";

Then you can change:

lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][0]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][1]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][2]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][3]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][4]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][5]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][6]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][7]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][8]));
lst_Fields.Items.Add(Convert.ToString(table.Rows[i][9]));

to:

foreach (DataColumn dc in table.Columns)
{
    lst_Fields.Items.Add(dc.ColumnName);
}