How To Connect to Excel

Excel
This is a compiled connection strings reference list on how to connect to Excel.

ODBC

Standard

 

Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)};DriverId=790;Dbq=C:\MyExcel.xls;DefaultDir=c:\mypath;

SQL syntax "SELECT * FROM [sheet1$]". I.e. excel worksheet name followed by a "$" and wrapped in "[" "]" brackets.

 

OLE DB
Standard
Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\MyExcel.xls;Extended Properties="Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=1";
Important note! The quota " in the string needs to be escaped using your language specific escape syntax. c#, c++   \" VB6, VBScript   "" xml (web.config etc)   " or maybe use a single quota '. "HDR=Yes;" indicates that the first row contains columnnames, not data. "HDR=No;" indicates the opposite. "IMEX=1;" tells the driver to always read "intermixed" (numbers, dates, strings etc) data columns as text. Note that this option might affect excel sheet write access negative. SQL syntax "SELECT * FROM [sheet1$]". I.e. excel worksheet name followed by a "$" and wrapped in "[" "]" brackets. Check out the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Jet\4.0\Engines\Excel] located registry REG_DWORD "TypeGuessRows". That's the key to not letting Excel use only the first 8 rows to guess the columns data type. Set this value to 0 to scan all rows. This might hurt performance. If the Excel workbook is protected by a password, you cannot open it for data access, even by supplying the correct password with your connection string. If you try, you receive the following error message: "Could not decrypt file."

Sarah Ding Note:

"IMEX=1;" tells the driver to always read "intermixed" data columns as text