How can I open Microsoft Excel in Visual Basic.NET

Question

I am using Visual Studio 2023 for using Visual Basic. I have latest version of Microsoft Office. I want to open Excel using Visual Basic (not VBA). Please tell me how to go about it. It is very important for me.

Answer 1

Hi @Rajendra Deshpande ,

Try using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.

Check the following steps and code.

• Add a reference to the Microsoft Office Interop Excel library:
  1. Right-click on your project in the Solution Explorer and select "Add" > "Reference..."
  2. In the Reference Manager, go to "Assemblies" > "Extensions".
  3. Look for "Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel" and check it. Then click "OK".

Imports Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel

Public Class Form1
    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        ' Create a new instance of Excel application
        Dim excelApp As New Excel.Application

        ' Make the Excel application visible
        excelApp.Visible = True

        ' Add a new workbook
        Dim workbook As Excel.Workbook = excelApp.Workbooks.Add()

        ' Optional: Access the first worksheet
        Dim worksheet As Excel.Worksheet = CType(workbook.Sheets(1), Excel.Worksheet)
        worksheet.Name = "MySheet"

        ' Optional: Write some data to the worksheet
        worksheet.Cells(1, 1).Value = "Hello, Excel!"
    End Sub
End Class

Best Regards.

Jiachen Li

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Answer 2

Yes. I want to start Excel and create a new blank work book using Visual Basic. I tried creating project reference in VS for Microsoft Excel Object Library and Microsoft Office Object libraries.

I havefollowe the instructions given in

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/previous-versions/office/troubleshoot/office-developer/automate-excel-from-visual-basic-net

But It is not working.

I

Answer 3

Hello Rajendra Deshpande,

Microsoft Excel in Visual Basic .NET is by using the Process class to start Excel as an external application. Here's how you can do it:

Imports System.Diagnostics

Public Class Form1

Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click

    Dim excelProcess As Process = New Process()

    ' Specify the path to Excel executable

    excelProcess.StartInfo.FileName = "excel.exe"

    ' Start Excel

    excelProcess.Start()

End Sub

End Class

In this code:

We import the System.Diagnostics namespace.

Inside the button click event handler, we create an instance of the Process class.

We specify the path to the Excel executable using StartInfo.FileName.

We start Excel by calling the Start() method of the Process instance.

This method directly starts Excel as an external application without accessing its object model. It's simpler but doesn't provide direct control over Excel's features like manipulating workbooks and worksheets.