Manage Worksheets of Microsoft Excel files.

Developers can easily create and manage worksheets in Microsoft Excel files programmatically using Aspose.Cells' flexible API. This topic describes approaches for adding and removing worksheets in Microsoft Excel files.

Aspose.Cells provides a class, Workbook that represents an Excel file. The Workbook class contains a Worksheets collection that allows access to each worksheet in the Excel file.

A worksheet is represented by the Worksheet class. The Worksheet class provides a wide range of properties and methods for managing worksheets.

Adding Worksheets to a New Excel File

To create a new Excel file programmatically:

1. Create an object of the Workbook class.
2. Call the Add method of the WorksheetCollection class. An empty worksheet is added to the Excel file automatically. It can be referenced by passing the sheet index of the new worksheet to the Worksheets collection.
3. Obtain a worksheet reference.
4. Perform work on the worksheets.
5. Save the new Excel file with new worksheets by calling the Workbook class' Save method.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

// Create directory if it is not already present.
bool IsExists = System.IO.Directory.Exists(dataDir);
if (!IsExists)
    System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(dataDir);

// Instantiating a Workbook object
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

// Adding a new worksheet to the Workbook object
int i = workbook.Worksheets.Add();

// Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index
Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[i];

// Setting the name of the newly added worksheet
worksheet.Name = "My Worksheet";

// Saving the Excel file
workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.out.xls");

Adding Worksheets to a Designer Spreadsheet

The process of adding worksheets to a designer spreadsheet is the same as that of adding a new worksheet, except that the Excel file already exists so should be opened before worksheets are added. A designer spreadsheet can be opened by the Workbook class.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

string InputPath = dataDir + "book1.xlsx";

// Creating a file stream containing the Excel file to be opened
FileStream fstream = new FileStream(InputPath, FileMode.Open);

           
// Opening the Excel file through the file stream
Workbook workbook = new Workbook(fstream);


// Adding a new worksheet to the Workbook object
int i = workbook.Worksheets.Add();

// Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index
Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[i];

// Setting the name of the newly added worksheet
worksheet.Name = "My Worksheet";

// Saving the Excel file
workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.xlsx");

Accessing Worksheets using Sheet Name

Access any worksheet by specifying its name or index.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

string InputPath = dataDir + "book1.xlsx";

// Creating a file stream containing the Excel file to be opened
FileStream fstream = new FileStream(InputPath, FileMode.Open);

// Instantiating a Workbook object
// Opening the Excel file through the file stream
Workbook workbook = new Workbook(fstream);

// Accessing a worksheet using its sheet name
Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets["Sheet1"];
Cell cell = worksheet.Cells["A1"];
Console.WriteLine(cell.Value);

Removing Worksheets using Sheet Name

To remove worksheets from a file, call the RemoveAt method of WorksheetCollection class. Pass the sheet name to the RemoveAt method to remove a specific worksheet.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

// Creating a file stream containing the Excel file to be opened
FileStream fstream = new FileStream(dataDir + "book1.xls", FileMode.Open);

// Instantiating a Workbook object
// Opening the Excel file through the file stream
Workbook workbook = new Workbook(fstream);

// Removing a worksheet using its sheet name
workbook.Worksheets.RemoveAt("Sheet1");

// Save workbook
workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.out.xls");

Removing Worksheets using Sheet Index

Removing worksheets by name works well when the name of the worksheet is known. If you don’t know the worksheet’s name, use an overloaded version of the RemoveAt method that takes the sheet index of the worksheet instead of its sheet name.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

// Creating a file stream containing the Excel file to be opened
FileStream fstream = new FileStream(dataDir + "book1.xls", FileMode.Open);

// Instantiating a Workbook object
// Opening the Excel file through the file stream
Workbook workbook = new Workbook(fstream);

// Removing a worksheet using its sheet index
workbook.Worksheets.RemoveAt(0);

// Save workbook
workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.out.xls");

Activating Sheets and Making an Active Cell in the Worksheet

Sometimes, you need a specific worksheet to be active and displayed when a user opens a Microsoft Excel file in Excel. Similarly, you might want to activate a specific cell and set the scrollbars to show the active cell. Aspose.Cells is capable of doing all these tasks.

An active sheet is a sheet you’re working on: the active sheet’s name on the tab is bold by default.

An active cell is a selected cell, the cell into which data is entered when you begin typing. Only one cell is active at a time. The active cell is highlighted by a heavy border.

Activating Sheets and Making a Cell Active

Aspose.Cells provides specific API calls for activating a sheet and a cell. For Example, the Aspose.Cells.WorksheetCollection.ActiveSheetIndex property is useful for setting the active sheet in a workbook. Similarly, Aspose.Cells.Worksheet.ActiveCell property is used to set and get an active cell in the worksheet.

To make sure that the horizontal or vertical scrollbars are at the row and column index position you want to show specific data, use the Aspose.Cells.Worksheet.FirstVisibleRow and Aspose.Cells.Worksheet.FirstVisibleColumn properties.

The following example shows how to activate a worksheet and make an active cell in it. In the generated output, the scrollbars will be scrolled to make the 2nd row and 2nd column as their first visible row and column.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

// Instantiate a new Workbook.
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

// Get the first worksheet in the workbook.
Worksheet worksheet1 = workbook.Worksheets[0];

// Get the cells in the worksheet.
Cells cells = worksheet1.Cells;

// Input data into B2 cell.
cells[1, 1].PutValue("Hello World!");

// Set the first sheet as an active sheet.
workbook.Worksheets.ActiveSheetIndex = 0;

// Set B2 cell as an active cell in the worksheet.
worksheet1.ActiveCell = "B2";

// Set the B column as the first visible column in the worksheet.
worksheet1.FirstVisibleColumn = 1;

// Set the 2nd row as the first visible row in the worksheet.
worksheet1.FirstVisibleRow = 1;

// Save the excel file.
workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.xls");
         

Advance topics

• Copying and Moving Worksheets
• Count number of cells in the Worksheet
• Detecting Empty Worksheets
• Find if the Worksheet is Dialog Sheet
• Get worksheet unique id
• Create, Manipulate or Remove Scenarios from Worksheets
• Managing Page Breaks
• Page Setup Features
• Print multiple copies of a worksheet
• Utilize Sheet.SheetId property of OpenXml using Aspose.Cells
• Worksheet Views