How can I open an excel file using openFileDialog

Question

I am having a hard time figuring this out. I would like to do on button click event to open a filedialog window in which the user will select an excel file and the file will get open in excel.

I have created the filebox and I am able to get the excel to open a new file,but I can't figure out how to get the two to mesh.

what I am trying to use is as follows,

using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
using System.Reflection; 

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
   {
        if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
        {
           System.IO.StreamReader sr = new
           System.IO.StreamReader(openFileDialog1.FileName);
           MessageBox.Show(sr.ReadToEnd());
           sr.Close();
        }
   }
}

and I was going to use this to open excel

Excel.Application excel = new Excel.Application();
Excel.Workbook wb = excel.Workbooks.Open(filename);

venerik · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-28 05:40:33Z

4

You should declare excel and wb as fields of your form. Something like

partial class MyForm : Form
{
  private Excel.Application _excel;
  private Excel.Workbook _wb;
  // and so on
}

Then you should replace

System.IO.StreamReader sr = new System.IO.StreamReader(openFileDialog1.FileName);
MessageBox.Show(sr.ReadToEnd());
sr.Close();

with

_excel = new Excel.Application();
_wb = _excel.Workbooks.Open(openFileDialog1.FileName);

edited May 28, 2013 at 5:40

answered May 28, 2013 at 4:56

venerik

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10 Comments

DougM Over a year ago

Why? Is it because his excel and wb objects drop out of scope?

venerik Over a year ago

Yep. If you declare them inside the event handler they are out of scope as soon as you leave the handler.

otterbaub Over a year ago

i get "An object reference is required for the non-static field, method, or property 'Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbooks.Open(string, object, object, object, object, object, object, object, object, object, object, object, object, object, object)'

venerik Over a year ago

There were two nasty typos in the last piece of code of my answer. Maybe that's causing the error.

otterbaub Over a year ago

there are no errors now. However nothing happens when selecting the file

|

shf301 · Accepted Answer · 2013-05-28 04:51:03Z

4

Just pass the filename from the open file dialog to the Excel application.

using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
using System.Reflection; 

private void button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
    {
        if (openFileDialog1.ShowDialog() == DialogResult.OK)
        {
            Excel.Application excel = new Excel.Application();
            Excel.Workbook wb = excel.Workbooks.Open(openFileDialog1.FileName);

answered May 28, 2013 at 4:51

shf301

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1 Comment

otterbaub Over a year ago

all that happens when i run this code is the form freezes for 5-10 sec and then nothing.

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