Reading Named Ranges in Excel using C#

Couldnt find any good examples of reading Named Ranges from a workbook, but eventually figured it out. Here some of the code.


private Excel.Workbook m_workbook;
object missing = Type.Missing;

        public void testNamedRangeFind()
        {
            m_workbook = Globals.ThisAddIn.Application.ActiveWorkbook;
            int i = m_workbook.Names.Count;
            string address = "";
            string sheetName = "";

            if (i != 0)
            {
                foreach (Excel.Name name in m_workbook.Names)
                {
                    string value = name.Value;
                    //Sheet and Cell e.g. =Sheet1!$A$1 or =#REF!#REF! if refers to nothing
                    string linkName = name.Name;
                    //gives the name of the link e.g. sales
                    if (value != "=#REF!#REF!")
                    {
                        address = name.RefersToRange.Cells.get_Address(true, true, Excel.XlReferenceStyle.xlA1, missing, missing);
                        sheetName = name.RefersToRange.Cells.Worksheet.Name;
                    }
                    Debug.WriteLine("" + value + ", " + linkName + " ," + address + ", " + sheetName);
                }
            }

        }

The following references are included:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
using Office = Microsoft.Office.Core;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Windows.Forms;
using System.IO;

8 Responses to “Reading Named Ranges in Excel using C#”

  1. Nishant Says:

    This is a wonderful piece of work. Works great. But just one issue I am facing is that, this code seems to throw an exception when the named range refers to another file. Is there any workaround for this?

    Many thanks!!!

    • Brian Bishoip Says:

      At which point does it throw the exception if you step through in debug mode?

      • Nishant Says:

        address = name.RefersToRange.Cells.get_Address(true, true, Excel.XlReferenceStyle.xlA1, missing, missing);

        This is where I get the exception.
        The Stack trace is as follows:
        at System.RuntimeType.ForwardCallToInvokeMember(String memberName, BindingFlags flags, Object target, Int32[] aWrapperTypes, MessageData& msgData)
        at Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Name.get_RefersToRange()
        at NamedRangeExcelTest.Program.Main(String[] args) in C:\Misc\Learn\Microsoft.NET\NamedRangeExcelTest\NamedRangeExcelTest\Program.cs:line 60

        Thanks

  2. Brian Bishoip Says:

    Im presuming its actually trying to open this file to get the Name Range details. Maybe catch the exception, and use a different function to open the external file and retrieve its details then. Otherwise, catch the exception, and process whatever details you have access to.

  3. Rock and Roll Says:

    foreach (Excel.Name name in m_workbook.Names)
    will takes more time in executing.

    I duno what will be the best way to handle that “issue”.

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    Reading Named Ranges in Excel using C# | Bishop On Development

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