Question

Empty string value in Excel when reading through OLE DB.

Asked by: Jeffreymarcum


I'm using a Microsoft.Jet OLEDB connector to work with Excel. During processing of the cells of the Excel sheet, some cells that have an alphanumeric combination, i.e. "D4265", "ALXD6", etc&won't read correctly. I am converting the Excel file to an XML string and passing this to a Web Service that converts the XML string to a DataSet. I then traverse the dataset to get the specific data from the cells and storing them, by column, in arrays. All arrays are string arrays and I am getting all of the data from the dataset using "dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[i].ToString();" format.

Example block of the code during the iteration of the columns / rows. Stored into String Arrays
 
else if (i == 1)
                        {
                            if (dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[0].ToString().ToUpper() == "A" ||
                            dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[0].ToString().ToUpper() == "ADD" ||
                            dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[0].ToString().ToUpper() == "U" ||
                            dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[0].ToString().ToUpper() == "UPDATE" ||
                            dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[0].ToString().ToUpper() == "D" ||
                            dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[0].ToString().ToUpper() == "DELETE")
                            {
                                paramArray2[j] = dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[i].ToString();
                            }
                        }

                                  
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Asked On
2009-01-21 at 13:28:08ID24071931
Tags

.net

,

C#

,

visual studio .net

Topics

C# Programming Language

,

Visual Studio

,

.NET Framework 3.x versions

Participating Experts
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Points
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Comments
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Answers

 

by: Steve_afPosted on 2009-01-21 at 13:44:55ID: 23434373

In your If statement above, do the cells you are processing have a value like "D4265" ?

If so, you just have to add StartsWith, like
///////////////////
if (dSet.Tables[0].Rows[j].ItemArray[0].ToString().ToUpper().StartsWith("A")
//////////////////

I hope its that simple.  :)

 

by: JeffreymarcumPosted on 2009-01-21 at 13:47:45ID: 23434401

The value is being passed as "D4265" from the Excel file but the value being read is " " (empty string). The format of the field in Excel is "Text". If the alpha character is removed, it will be read.

 

by: TiggeritoPosted on 2009-01-22 at 01:50:04ID: 23437836

You might want to set IMEX=1 in your Jet based connection string.

The jet driver sometimes has problems determining column types, especially if the content contains values that look like numbers but are in fact text. IMEX=1 tells it to always treat them as text.

Here's an article that explains IMEX and is also related to generating XML so may be quite useful

http://www.codeproject.com/KB/vb/Excel_Connectivity.aspx

 

by: JeffreymarcumPosted on 2009-01-22 at 07:12:05ID: 31537405

Tiggerito - This was the exact answer. The article helped out with explaining the issue further. Thanks!!

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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