How can I create a SQL table using excel columns?

Question

I need to help to generate column name from excel automatically. I think that: we can do below codes:

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Addresses_Temp] ( 
    [FirstName]   VARCHAR(20), 
    [LastName]    VARCHAR(20), 
    [Address]     VARCHAR(50), 
    [City]        VARCHAR(30), 
    [State]       VARCHAR(2), 
    [ZIP]         VARCHAR(10) 
) 

via C#. How can I learn column name from Excel?

private void Form1_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   ExcelToSql();
}

void ExcelToSql()
{
    string connectionString = @"Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\Source\MPD.xlsm;Extended Properties=""Excel 12.0;HDR=YES;""";
    // if you don't want to show the header row (first row)            
    // use 'HDR=NO' in the string             
    string strSQL = "SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]";            
    OleDbConnection excelConnection = new OleDbConnection(connectionString);           
    excelConnection.Open(); // This code will open excel file.            
    OleDbCommand dbCommand = new OleDbCommand(strSQL, excelConnection);          
    OleDbDataAdapter dataAdapter = new OleDbDataAdapter(dbCommand);            

    // create data table            
    DataTable dTable = new DataTable();            
    dataAdapter.Fill(dTable);            

    // bind the datasource          
    //  dataBingingSrc.DataSource = dTable;         
    // assign the dataBindingSrc to the DataGridView         
    // dgvExcelList.DataSource = dataBingingSrc;             // dispose used objects          
    if (dTable.Rows.Count > 0)
       MessageBox.Show("Count:" + dTable.Rows.Count.ToString());
    dTable.Dispose();           
    dataAdapter.Dispose();           
    dbCommand.Dispose();            
    excelConnection.Close();           
    excelConnection.Dispose();
}

Answer 1

Does it have to be C#? If you're willing to use Java, I've had really good results with Apache POI: http://poi.apache.org/

Answer 2

You should be able to iterate over the DataTable's columns collection to get the column names.

System.Data.DataTable dt;
dt = new System.Data.DataTable();
foreach(System.Data.DataColumn col in dt.Columns)
{
     System.Diagnostics.Debug.WriteLine(col.ColumnName);
}

Answer 3

This is not a C# solution... it is a quick and dirty solution right from excel. A c# solution would be more robust and allow you to most likely point it to a target xls and have it give you the answers - this solution is for if you need the answers fast and don't have time to write a program or if someone does not have C# development environment on their computer.

One possible way to get the results you're looking for is:

• highlight the row in excel that has the column headers
• copy them
• go to a new worksheet
• right click cell A1
• click paste-transpose
• it will paste them in column format

• go to B2 and paste this formula in:

  =CONCATENATE("[",SUBSTITUTE(A1," ",""),"] varchar(20),")

• then paste that formula all the way down next to your column of column headers

• copy the results into SQL Server then add your top line of code "CREATE TABLE [dbo].[Addresses_Temp] ( "

• then add your closing parentheses

What we did is:

• we got all the colunn headers from the header ROW and
• made them into a column
• then removed all spaces (should they be multiword column headers) and
• tacked onto the beginning the open bracket "[" and
• tacked onto the end "] VARCHAR(20)," (the rest of the line of code)