Read Excel 2007 file (.xlsx) in C#

Question

My code was quite sufficient for reading xls file in C# (using Microsoft.Jet.Oledb.4.0) but when I tried to read Office 2007 (xlsx) file, it didn't work. I searched and found that it could be read using Microsoft.ACE.Oledb.12, I tried and it worked. Can anyone tell me the difference between the two? and why xlsx file can not be read using Microsoft.Jet.Oledb.4.0 Provider.

Answer 1

ACE (Access Database Engine) is just the successor to Jet , it's still backwards compatible but it also supports new features in it's new default.accdb file format.

You can find more information at the Wiki page:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Jet_Database_Engine

Here's a good blog post that goes into more detail:
Link