Can’t open excel file generated with excelLibrary

calendar_today Asked Nov 12, 2011
thumb_up 38 upvotes
history Updated April 16, 2026

Question posted 2011 · +11 upvotes

I’m using excelLibrary to programatically create excel files but I get a file format error when I try to open the generated files in Microsoft Office Excel.

I’ve seen this has been reported but there’s still no answer about it.

I use Office 2010 and I’m able to open any other .xls (97-2003 file format) but the ones generated with excelLibrary. I’ve also tried Open Office and still can’t open the generated file. I haven’t tried to open them in Office 97-2003.

Just try the sample code to reproduce the error.

Have anybody found how to use the library and not run into this problem?

Accepted answer +38 upvotes

Found a solution : 

string filename = "c:Test.xls";
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
Worksheet sheet = new Worksheet("Test")
workbook.Worksheets.Add(sheet)

for(int i = 0;i < 100; i++)
      sheet.Cells[i,0] = new Cell("");

workbook.save(filename);

The problem is that Office 2010 doesn’t support it unless there are 100 or more Cells Filled.

My work around was to have it fill 100 cells in a for loop with “”. That way it gets it’s 100 cell count in and then it works just fine.

Reference : here

Excel VBA objects referenced (4)

  • Workbook — Workbooks and Worksheets
  • Workbook — Add a Table of Contents to a Workbook
  • Worksheet — Refer to All the Cells on the Worksheet
  • Worksheet — List of worksheet functions available to Visual Basic

Top excel Q&A (6)

+38 upvotes ranks this answer #11 out of 167 excel solutions on this site — top 7%.
excel