Using ExcelMapper

ExcelMapper is a tool to create and access data from excel (*.xls and *.xlsx) as a collection of strongly typed objects.  Here is  brief description on how to use it:

BuildDtosFromExcel.exe is an exe file used to generate an assembly of strongly typed objects. Each class is equivalent to a worksheet in an excel file. For instance, User tab in excel is mapped to User class and each of the columns is mapped to properties in the User class.

To create a User class, run the following command:

BuildDTOsFromExcel User.xlsx

The command generates ExcelToDTOMapper.DTO.dll assembly that contains User class as shown below:

 namespace ExcelToDTOMapper.DTO
 {
   public class User
   {
     public System.Double Id { get; set; }
     public System.String LastName { get; set; }
     public System.String FirstName { get; set; }
     public System.DateTime DateOfBirth { get; set; }
   }
 }

If you want to create an assembly of different name, you can pass an [optional] assembly name. You can get the complete usage of BuildDTOsFromExcel by running BuildDTOsFromExcel /?.

You can now add this assembly as a reference to your project along with ExcelMapper.dll, Microsoft.Practices.ServiceLocation (available in the download) to access data from Excel.

Finally, add the following piece of code in your application.

  ExcelMapper.SetUp();

  IRepository repository = ServiceLocator.Current.GetInstance<IRepository>();

  foreach (User user in repository.Get<User>("Excel\\Users.xlsx", "User"))
  {
     Console.WriteLine("Hello {0} {1}", user.FirstName, user.LastName);
  }
 

ExcelMapper.SetUp() should be done only once in the whole application. If you are using StructureMap as your IoC tool, then you can add the ExcelMapperRegistry in your BootStrapper code as show belo:

public static void Initialize()
{
   ObjectFactory.Initialize(x =>
      {
          x.Scan(s =>
          {
              s.TheCallingAssembly();
              s.WithDefaultConventions();
          });
          x.AddRegistry<ExcelMapperRegistry>();
      }
   );
}

If your running on a 64 bit machine, remember to compile your code in x86 platform. Executing the above code results in the following output:

Since repository.Get<User>(“Excel\\Users.xlsx”, “User”) returns IEnumerable<User>, you can use Linq.