Index was outside the bounds of the array while reading from excelsheet

Question

I am importing excelsheet into sqlserver database but there are three columns in excel:

id|data|passport

I want to make sure that all passports start with an alphabet i am getting error at:

if (a[0]>= 'A' && a[0] <= 'Z' && a[0] !='0' )

Error:

Index was outside the bounds of the array.

          for (int i1 = 0; i1 < dt7.Rows.Count; i1++)
            {

                if (dt7.Rows[i1]["passport"]==null)
                {
                    dt7.Rows[i1]["passport"] = 0;

                }

                string a = Convert.ToString(dt7.Rows[i1]["passport"]);

                //char a1 = a[0];

                if (a[0]>= 'A' && a[0] <= 'Z' && a[0] !='0' )
                {
                    Label12.Text = "CAPITAL";
                    break;
                }
                else
                {
                    Label12.Text = "notgood";


                    flag = flag + 1;

                }

Answer 1

It sounds like a references an empty array, which therefore doesn't have an element at index 0 . You'll need to check that the array isn't empty before trying to access the first element.

Answer 2

It certainly used to be the case that objects in word and excel ranges were 1-based arrays and would throw an out of range exception when index 0 was accessed. I believe this is still the case.

It is also possible, as @anthony-grist said, that the array is empty, and therefor the first item will be outside of the array bounds.

I recommend that you test the length of the array, and start access at index 1.

Answer 3

Why not just modify your condition like this

If(!String.IsNullOrEmpty(a)){
    If(Char.IsLetter(a[0])){
          Label12.Text = "CAPITAL";
          break;
    }
}