How do I create an Excel XLS and XLSX file in C without installing Microsoft Office

Question

How can I construct an Excel spreadsheet in C# without having to install Excel on the machine where the code is being run?

Answer 1

You can use OLEDB to create and manipulate Excel files.

Example:

using (OleDbConnection conn = new OleDbConnection("Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=C:\\temp\\test.xls;Extended Properties='Excel 8.0;HDR=Yes'"))
{
  conn.Open();
  OleDbCommand cmd = new OleDbCommand("CREATE TABLE [Sheet1] ([Column1] string, [Column2] string)", conn);
  cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
}