I would like to get the values of a non contiguous, multi area range in excel using C#. I have seen another SO question that says I can do something like this:
obj[,] data = sheet.get_Range("B4:K4,B5:K5").get_Value();
However, when I examine the result I see that I only get the data from the first area: "B4:K4"
.
Testing further, I found that if I request the data in the following way:
obj[,] data = sheet.get_Range( "B4:K4","B5:K5").get_Value();
I get the data for both areas...
So, my question is, is there a way to programmatically combine area addresses such as "B4:K4,B5:K5"
in order to get all of the data to which they refer?
Thanks
The solution I came up with isn't as elegant as I would have liked but it does the trick nonetheless:
public List<List<object>>
GetNonContiguousRowValue(Excel.Worksheet ws, string noncontiguous_address)
{
var addresses = noncontiguous_address.Split(','); // e.g. "A1:D1,A4:D4"
var row_data = new List<List<object>>();
// Get the value of one row at a time:
foreach (var addr in addresses)
{
object[,] arr = ws.get_Range(addr).Value;
List<object> row = arr.Cast<object>)
.Take(arr.GetLength(dimension:1))
.ToList<object>();
row_data.Add(row);
}
return row_data;
}
Hope this helps someone else...
If you are trying to get the data from a range table with hidden rows, another technique is to grab the visible cells, and copy them to a new worksheet. When pasted, they will form a contiguous region and the normal object[,] array can be retrieved.
public object[,] GetNonContiguousVisibleRowsData(Excel.Worksheet sheet, string noncontiguous_address)
{
// Add a new worksheet
Excel.Workbook book = (Excel.Workbook)sheet.Parent;
Excel.Sheets sheets = book.Sheets;
Excel.Worksheet tempSheet = (Excel.Worksheet)sheets.Add();
Excel.Range cellA1 = tempSheet.get_Range("A1");
// Get only the visible cells
Excel.Range nonContiguousRange = sheet.get_Range(noncontiguous_address);
Excel.Range visibleSourceRange = nonContiguousRange.SpecialCells(Excel.XlCellType.xlCellTypeVisible);
// Copying the visible cells will result in a contiguous range in tempSheet
visibleSourceRange.Copy(cellA1);
// Get the contiguous range and copy the cell value.
Excel.Range contiguousRange = tempSheet.UsedRange;
object[,] data = (object[,])contiguousRange.get_Value(Excel.XlRangeValueDataType.xlRangeValueDefault);
// Release all COM objects from temp sheet, e.g.:
// System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(contiguousRange);
// contiguousRange = null;
tempSheet.Delete();
// release all other COM objects
return data;
}
Another way would be to combine the non-contiguous areas together into a named range, and just reference that named range within your C# code. Here is a way to do this (assign this formula to a named range in the Excel Name Manager):
=CHOOSE({1;2;3},Sheet1!$A$1,Sheet2!$A$3,Sheet3!$A$5)
The downside with this method is that each area can only be 1 row high.