Check if Excel file is empty in C#

Question

Can anyone suggest, how to check if xls file empty or not? I have tried FileInfo("fname").Length == 0 But it's not working.

Thanks

Are you trying to avoid Excel automation? – bouvierr Apr 03 '12 at 23:47 — bouvierr, Apr 03 '12 at 23:47

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 03 '12 at 23:47

3

An "empty" Excel file will still have an Excel file header, which is why your test for a size of 0 is failing.

You can use Excel Interop to see what the UsedRange is:

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/exceldev/thread/b9cdfbd7-5ae9-41f7-b7e8-ebc00e835d45#546316e8-8745-42e8-9c0d-063d1373dfbe

answered Apr 03 '12 at 23:47

Eric J.

147,927
63
340
553

Beware of UsedRange. See there: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/50434444/worksheet-usedrange-rows-count-returns-wrong-result – 8oris Mar 29 '22 at 14:15

score 2 · Answer 2 · edited Mar 21 '14 at 05:44

for .xls you can try this - it works for me.

FileUpload1.SaveAs(Server.MapPath("~/FileUpload/") + path.Value);
                Workbook book = Workbook.Load(Server.MapPath(("~/FileUpload/") + FileUpload1.FileName));
                Worksheet sheet = book.Worksheets[0];
                sheetCount.Value = sheet.Cells.LastRowIndex.ToString();

                foreach (Worksheet ws in book.Worksheets)
                {
                    if (ws.Cells.Rows.Count != 0)
                    {
                        ddlSheets.Items.Add(ws.Name.ToString());
                    }
                }

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 03 '12 at 23:47

0

I think there is not simple solution similar to one you have stated.

You will have to actually programatically read the file by some Excel parser and check if there are some data.

answered Apr 03 '12 at 23:47

Petr Újezdský

1,233
12
13

score 0 · Answer 4 · edited Apr 01 '20 at 11:26

Using Excel Interop I have created this function. It works as Ribbon add-in, however you can replace Globals.ThisAddIn with Excel.Application.

private bool IsEmptyFolder(Excel.Workbook wb)
        {
            try
            {
                foreach(Excel.Worksheet sheet in wb.Worksheets)
                {
                    if (Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.WorksheetFunction.CountA(sheet.Cells) != 0) return false;
                }
                return true;
            }
            catch
            {
                return false;
            }
        }

If it finds any worksheet with a value in a cell, it returns false. Otherwise it returns true (the workbook is empty).

Check if Excel file is empty in C#

4 Answers4

Linked