Visual Studio 2015 - Manipulating Excel?

Question

I have 750 Excel files that I want to

1. clean by deleting columns of data that have a heading with an asterisk,
2. then take some of that data and put it in a new workbook worksheet, and other data into the same workbook worksheet, and some other data into a second new workbook.

I created a WPF project in Visual Studio 2015 with a little dialog box with 2 radio buttons for

1. clean data,
2. produce new files.

This is my VB code:

    Class MainWindow
    Dim wb As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Workbook
    Dim ws As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Worksheet
    Dim iCol As Integer
    Dim strName As String
    Dim iIndex As Integer
    Dim strPath As String
    Dim strFile As String

    Private Sub button_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs) Handles button.Click
        If cleanRadioButton.IsChecked = True Then
            strPath = "c:\test\old\"
            strFile = Dir(strPath & "*.csv")
            Do While strFile <> ""

                wb = wb.Open(Filename:=strPath & strFile)

                'Loop through the sheets.
                For iIndex = 1 To Application.Worksheets.Count
                    ws = Application.Worksheets(iIndex)

                    'Loop through the columns.
                    For iCol = 1 To ws.UsedRange.Columns.Count
                        'Check row 1 of this column for the char of *
                        If InStr(ws.Cells(10, iCol).Value, "*") > 0 Then
                            'We have found a column with the char of *
                            ws.Columns(iCol).EntireColumn.Delete
                            ws.Columns(iCol + 1).EntireColumn.Delete
                            ws.Columns(iCol + 2).EntireColumn.Delete
                        End If
                    Next iCol

                Next iIndex
                wb.SaveAs(Filename:="C:\test\new\" & wb.Name, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook)
                wb.Close(SaveChanges:=False)
                strFile = Dir()
            Loop
            MessageBox.Show("The csv files have now been cleaned.  Congrats.")
        Else inputRadioButton.IsChecked = True
            MessageBox.Show("The data has now been split into Trajectory and ForcePlate input files.  High 5.")
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

I get 3 errors but can't work out how to solve them.

a) Worksheets is not a member of Application [line 19]

b) Worksheets is not a member of Application [line 20]

c) 'xlOpenXMLWorkbook' is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level.

Answer 1

For a) and b), the pattern is :

Application.Workbooks.Worksheets

For c), easiest way out :

Go into VBE from Excel (Alt + F11)

Press F2 to display the Object Browser

Look for xlOpenXMLWorkbook

Result : Const xlOpenXMLWorkbook = 51 (&H33) So, just replace it by the value 51!

---

Here is your amended code :

  Class MainWindow
    Dim wb As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Workbook
    Dim ws As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Worksheet
    Dim iCol As Integer
    Dim strName As String
    Dim iIndex As Integer
    Dim wbIndex As Integer
    Dim strPath As String
    Dim strFile As String

    Private Sub button_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs) Handles button.Click
        If cleanRadioButton.IsChecked = True Then
            strPath = "c:\test\old\"
            strFile = Dir(strPath & "*.csv")
            Do While strFile <> ""

                wb = wb.Open(Filename:=strPath & strFile)

                'Loop through the sheets.
                For wbIndex = 1 To Application.Workbooks.Count
                    For iIndex = 1 To Application.Workbooks(wbIndex).Worksheets.Count
                        Ws = Application.Workbooks(wbIndex).Worksheets(iIndex)
    
                        'Loop through the columns.
                        For iCol = 1 To Ws.UsedRange.Columns.Count
                            'Check row 1 of this column for the char of *
                            If InStr(Ws.Cells(10, iCol).Value, "*") > 0 Then
                                'We have found a column with the char of *
                                Ws.Columns(iCol).EntireColumn.Delete
                                Ws.Columns(iCol + 1).EntireColumn.Delete
                                Ws.Columns(iCol + 2).EntireColumn.Delete
                            End If
                        Next iCol
    
                    Next iIndex
                Next wbIndex
                'Const xlOpenXMLWorkbook = 51 (&H33)
                wb.SaveAs(Filename:="C:\test\new\" & wb.Name, FileFormat:=51)
                wb.Close(SaveChanges:=False)
                strFile = Dir()
            Loop
            MessageBox.Show ("The csv files have now been cleaned.  Congrats.")
        Else: inputRadioButton.IsChecked = True
            MessageBox.Show ("The data has now been split into Trajectory and ForcePlate input files.  High 5.")
        End If
    End Sub
End Class

Answer 2

To reference a worksheet yau can use either ws = wb.Worksheets(1) or ws = wb.Worksheets("Sheet1") or ws = excelApp.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1) and to use xlOpenXMLWorkbook use the name of the corresponding Enum XlFileFormatas well: XlFileFormat.xlOpenXMLWorkbook.

This simplified example opens the workbook Test.xlsx, writes text in cell A1 and saves it to new folder.

Imports System.IO
Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel

Public Class MainWindow

    Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        Dim excelApp As Application
        Dim wb As _Workbook
        Dim ws As _Worksheet
        Dim rng As Range
        Dim strPathOld = "c:\temp\old"
        Dim strPathNew = "c:\temp\new"

        ' get excel application reference
        excelApp = New Application
        excelApp.Visible = True
        excelApp.ScreenUpdating = True

        ' open the workbook
        wb = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(Path.Combine(strPathOld, "Test.xlsx"))

        ' set reference to the sheet with index 1
        ws = wb.Worksheets(1)

        ' or use sheet name
        ' ws = wb.Worksheets("Sheet1")

        ' or use ActiveWorkbook if it exists
        ' ws = excelApp.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1)

        ' write text in cell A1
        rng = ws.Range("A1")
        rng.Formula = "Test123"

        ' save the workbook in new location
        wb.SaveAs(Filename:=Path.Combine(strPathNew, wb.Name), _
              FileFormat:=XlFileFormat.xlOpenXMLWorkbook)

        excelApp.Quit()

    End Sub
End Class

Note: add reference to MS Office Interop for your version of Excel(here example for Excel 2007).