Connection string extended properties excel

The connectionstring has some parts:

Provider: It is the main oledb provider that is used to open the Excel
sheet. This will be Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0 for Excel 97 onwards Excel
file format and Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0 for Excel 2007 or higher
Excel file format (One with xlsx extension)

Data Source: It is the entire path of the Excel workbook. You need to mention a dospath that corresponds to an Excel file. Thus, it will
look like: Data Source=C:testApp.xls».

Extended Properties (Optional): Extended properties can be applied to Excel workbooks which may change the overall activity of the Excel
workbook from your program. The most common ones are the following:

HDR: It represents Header of the fields in the Excel table. Default is YES. If you don’t have fieldnames in the header of your
worksheet, you can specify HDR=NO which will take the columns of the
tables that it finds as f1,f2 etc.

ReadOnly: You can also open Excel workbook in readonly mode by specifying ReadOnly=true; By default, Readonly attribute is false, so
you can modify data within your workbook.

FirstRowHasNames: It is the same as HDR, it is always set to 1 ( which means true) you can specify it as false if you don’t have your
header row. If HDR is YES, provider disregards this property. You can
change the default behaviour of your environment by changing the
Registry Value
[HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftJet4.0EnginesExcelFirstRowHasNames] to 00
(which is false)

MaxScanRows: Excel does not provide the detailed schema defination of the tables it finds. It need to scan the rows before
deciding the data types of the fields. MaxScanRows specifies the
number of cells to be scanned before deciding the data type of the
column. By default, the value of this is 8. You can specify any value
from 1 — 16 for 1 to 16 rows. You can also make the value to 0 so that
it searches all existing rows before deciding the data type. You can
change the default behaviour of this property by changing the value of
[HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftJet4.0EnginesExcelTypeGuessRows] which is
8 by default. Currently, MaxScanRows is ignored, so you need only to
depend on TypeGuessRows Registry value. Hope Microsoft fixes this
issue to its later versions.

IMEX: (A Caution) As mentioned above, Excel will have to guess a number or rows to select the most appropriate data type of the
column, a serious problem may occur if you have mixed data in one
column. Say you have data of both integer and text on a single column,
in that case, Excel will choose its data type based on majority of the
data. Thus it selects the data for the majority data type that is
selected, and returns NULL for the minority data type. If the two
types are equally mixed in the column, the provider chooses numeric
over text.

For example, in your eight (8) scanned rows, if the column contains five (5) numeric values and three (3) text values, the
provider returns five (5) numbers and three (3) null values.

To work around this problem for data, set «IMEX=1» in the Extended Properties section of the connection string. This enforces
the ImportMixedTypes=Text registry setting. You can change the
enforcement of type by changing
[HKLMSoftwareMicrosoftJet4.0EnginesExcelImportMixedTypes] to
numeric as well.

Thus if you look into the simple connectionstring with all of them, it will look like:

    Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=c:\testexcel.xls;
    Extended Properties="Excel 8.0;HDR=YES;IMEX=1;MAXSCANROWS=15;READONLY=FALSE""

    or:
    Copy Code

    Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=C:\testexcel.xlsx;
    Extended Properties="Excel 12.0;HDR=YES;IMEX=1;MAXSCANROWS=15;READONLY=FALSE""

We need to place extended properties into Quotes(«) as there are multiple number of values.

This reference section describes additional connection string information when using EDT to load data directly from an Excel spreadsheet file.

The Excel Database Tasks (EDT) software can load data from ANY source either as an Excel report, or Validate and send the data to any destination Table or Stored Procedure.  Supporting MS SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, Access, DB2 databases.

Download EDT Free Trial

A connection string can be pasted into the EDT Data Source connection string text box as highlighted below.

After modifying the connection string,  click the Test button to verify the connection:

Microsoft ACE OLEDB 12.0

Microsoft ACE driver will allow you to query Office files (Including Access database AND Excel files)

ACE driver is available from Microsoft here:

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:myFoldermyExcel2007file.xlsx;

Extended Properties=»Excel 12.0 Xml;HDR=YES»;

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:myFoldermyExcel2007file.xlsx;

Extended Properties=»Excel 12.0 Xml;HDR=YES;IMEX=1″;

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;

Data Source=c:myFoldermyBinaryExcel2007file.xlsb;

Extended Properties=»Excel 12.0;HDR=YES»;

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:myFoldermyExcel2007file.xlsm;

Extended Properties=»Excel 12.0 Macro;HDR=YES»;

Provider=Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0;Data Source=c:myFoldermyOldExcelFile.xls;

Extended Properties=»Excel 8.0;HDR=YES»;

Microsoft Jet OLE DB 4.0

Standard (Excel)

Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:MyExcel.xls;

Extended Properties=»Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=1″;

How to Use JET in 64 bit environments 

Standard alternative
Try this one if the one above is not working. Some reports that Excel 2003 need the exta OLEDB; section in the beginning of the string.

OLEDB;Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:MyExcel.xls;Extended Properties=»Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes;IMEX=1″;

«HDR=Yes;» indicates that the first row contains column names, 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 [Column Name One], [Column Name Two] FROM [Sheet One$]». I.e. excel worksheet name followed by a «$» and wrapped in «[» «]» brackets.Check out the [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREMicrosoftJet4.0EnginesExcel] 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. Please also note that adding the IMEX=1 option might cause the IMEX feature to set in after just 8 rows. Use IMEX=0 instead to be sure to force the registry TypeGuessRows=0 (scan all rows) to work.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.»

.NET Framework Data Provider for OLE DB

Use an OLE DB provider from .NET

Provider=any oledb provider’s name;OledbKey1=someValue;OledbKey2=someValue;

See the respective OLEDB provider’s connection strings options. The .net OleDbConnection will just pass on the connection string to the specified OLEDB provider. 

Microsoft Excel 2007 ODBC Driver

Standard

Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)};

DBQ=C:MyExcel.xlsx;

Standard (for versions 97 — 2003)

Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls, *.xlsx, *.xlsm, *.xlsb)};

DBQ=C:MyExcel.xls;

Standard

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

DefaultDir=c:mypath;

SQL syntax «SELECT [Column Name One], [Column Name Two] FROM [Sheet One$]». I.e. excel worksheet name followed by a «$» and wrapped in «[» «]» brackets.

Specify ReadOnly
[Microsoft][ODBC Excel Driver] Operation must use an updateable query. Use this connection string to avoid the error.

Driver={Microsoft Excel Driver (*.xls)};Dbq=C:MyExcel.xls;ReadOnly=0;

ReadOnly = 0 specifies the connection to be updateable. 

.NET Framework Data Provider for ODBC

Use an ODBC driver from .NET

Driver={any odbc driver’s name};OdbcKey1=someValue;OdbcKey2=someValue;

See the respective ODBC driver’s connection strings options. The .net Odbc Connection will just pass on the connection string to the specified ODBC driver.

.NET xlReader for Microsoft Excel

Excel file with header row

Data Source =c:myExcelFile.xlsx;HDR=yes;Format=xlsx;

Excel file without header row

Data Source =c:myExcelFile.xlsx;HDR=no;Format=xlsx;

Excel file with header row (for versions 97 — 2003)

Data Source =c:myExcelFile.xls;HDR=yes;Format=xls;

Excel file without header row (for versions 97 — 2003)

Data Source =c:myExcelFile.xls;HDR=no;Format=xls;

RSSBus ADO.NET Provider for Excel