Introduction

NExcel is a open source API wich allows .NET applications to read Excel spreadsheets. 

Easy to use and to deploy, it reads spreadsheets from Excel 97 and later in biff format. It can be used both in Windows applications and in ASP.NET Web applications. For more informations on NExcel's features see Features.

NExcel is entirely written in C# and doesn't need Ms Office Excel or third-party libraries.
For more informations on deploy requirements see Requirements.

NExcel is a port of JExcelAPI by Andrew Khan, a famous open source API for Excel in Java.
Widely used and appreciated by Java developers, JExcelAPI offers read/write capabilities and many advanced features.

Current release of NExcel is the 0.5.0 and is in Alpha Status. It is based on JExcelAPI rel. 2.4.4.

You can find a start tutorial in Getting Started and code examples in Samples.

Features

NExcel provides the following features:

• reads data from Excel 97, 2000, XP and 2003 spreadsheets
• supports font, number and date formatting
• supports formulas
• no need to install Ms Office Excel or third-party libraries
  It's a pure .NET library with no reference to other libraries.
• can be used on server-side applications
  Per instance, you can use it in ASP.NET Web applications running on server machines.
• is internationalized
  Contents and formula names vary on the application's current language.
  Language supported are English, French, German and Spanish.
• is easy to deploy
  Just add NExcel.dll to your application.

Current release can only read Excel spreadsheets, not write. The write feature will be added in future releases.
Besides, current release can't read spreadsheets with images.

Requirements

Current release of NExcel needs to install on your system:

• Microsoft .NET Framework 1.0 or later

Installation

Before using NExcel in your .NET application, you need to add NExcel.dll to your application's project.
To do it, follow these steps:

1. Get nexcel.0.5.0-alpha.zip
   NExcel comes packaged as a .zip file, called nexcel.0.5.0-alpha.zip.
   The file contains binaries, documentation and sources.
2. Choose a folder and unzip nexcel.0.5.0-alpha.zip in it
   Once unzipped, in this folder you'll obtain four new folders: bin, doc, src and samples.
   In bin directory you'll find the NExcel binary, NExcel.dll.
3. Add NExcel.dll to your application
   Add NExcel.dll to the libraries of your application.
   Then add a reference to it in your application's project.

Now you're ready to write code. To start with it, you can find a start tutorial in Getting Started and code examples in Samples.