Open XML Creating Multiple sheets

Question

I am trying to create an Excel file using Open XML C#, where there are multiple sheets in my excel file that needs to be created. Please find my code below and help me with a solution.

When I open the excel only 1 sheet is present, sheet 2 is getting overwritten in sheet 1.

    public void CreateExcelFile(string filePath , List<SheetData> excelSheet)
    {

        var sheetCount = GetSheetCount(filePath);


        using (SpreadsheetDocument spreedDoc = SpreadsheetDocument.Create(filePath,
            DocumentFormat.OpenXml.SpreadsheetDocumentType.Workbook))
        {
            Workbook workbook1 = new Workbook();
            workbook1.AddNamespaceDeclaration("r", "http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships");
            FileVersion fileVersion1 = new FileVersion() { ApplicationName = "xl", LastEdited = "5", LowestEdited = "4", BuildVersion = "9302" };
            WorkbookProperties workbookProperties1 = new WorkbookProperties() { FilterPrivacy = true, DefaultThemeVersion = (UInt32Value)124226U };

            BookViews bookViews1 = new BookViews();
            WorkbookView workbookView1 = new WorkbookView() { XWindow = 240, YWindow = 105, WindowWidth = (UInt32Value)14805U, WindowHeight = (UInt32Value)8010U, ActiveTab = (UInt32Value)2U };

            bookViews1.Append(workbookView1);
            Sheets sheetCol = new Sheets();

            int ctr = 0;
            foreach (var sheetToCreate in excelSheet)
            {
                ctr++;

                //WorksheetPart worksheetPart = null;
                //worksheetPart = wbPart.AddNewPart<WorksheetPart>();
                //var sheetData = new SheetData();

                //worksheetPart.Worksheet = new Worksheet(sheetData);
                //worksheetPart.Worksheet = new Worksheet(sheetToCreate);

                string sheetName = "Sheet";


                sheetName += ctr.ToString();



                var sheet = new Sheet()
                {
                    Id = "rId" + ctr,
                    SheetId = (UInt32)ctr,
                    Name = sheetName
                };
                sheet.Append(sheetToCreate);
                sheetCol.Append(sheet);


                //wbPart.Workbook.Sheets.AppendChild(sheet);
                //wbPart.Workbook.Append(sheetCol);

                workbook1.Sheets.Append(sheet);

                //var workingSheet = ((WorksheetPart)wbPart.GetPartById(sheet.Id)).Worksheet;



            }
            workbook1.Append(fileVersion1);
            workbook1.Append(workbookProperties1);
            workbook1.Append(bookViews1);
            workbook1.Append(sheetCol);



            //Set Border 
            //wbPark

            workbook1.Save();
        }
    }

Answer 1

When dealing with OpenXML, the "OpenXML Productivity Tool" (downloadable from Microsoft's site) is your friend. When I work with creating documents with OpenXML, I do the following:

1. Create a document similar to what I want using Excel or Word (in this case, an Excel spreadsheet document with two sheets (I labeled them "First" and "Second")).
2. Open the document up in the productivity tool
3. Reflect the code (a button on the Tool's UI)
4. Copy/paste the code I want.

If I do that, I end up with all the code I need. I've boiled it down to the essentials to answer your question. Excel will complain that the document produced below is corrupt (since all it includes is the code to create the two sheets - and leaves lots of other required code out - all of which is stealable from the tool). However, if you tell Excel "Repair this for me", you will get a document with two sheets, labeled "First" and "Second"

WorkbookPart workbookPart1 = document.AddWorkbookPart();
Workbook workbook1 = new Workbook() { MCAttributes = new MarkupCompatibilityAttributes() { Ignorable = "x15 xr xr6 xr10 xr2" } };
//lots of namespace declarations - copy them from the tool (they are needed!!)
//lots of code for WorkbookProperties, etc (you can get this from Tool)
Sheets sheets1 = new Sheets();
Sheet sheet1 = new Sheet() { Name = "First", SheetId = (UInt32Value)1U, Id = "rId1" };
Sheet sheet2 = new Sheet() { Name = "Second", SheetId = (UInt32Value)2U, Id = "rId2" };

sheets1.Append(sheet1);
sheets1.Append(sheet2);
//More elided code

workbook1.Append(sheets1);
workbookPart1.Workbook = workbook1;

I strongly recommend that you keep the pluralization of things like Sheet and Sheets clear. Your code has Sheets sheetCol = new Sheets();, it's not clear after that that sheetCol is a Sheets and not a Sheet.

Then you have something called sheetToCreate which is a SheetData object. Again, that's confusing - call it something clear like thisSheetData or something. I really strongly recommend that you follow the OpenXML naming as much as you can, otherwise it is extremely hard to follow what's going on.

The Productivity Tool is also handy once you've written out your file. You can see what you created, often spotting what the error is. In addition, there's a validate button that usually (not always) points you to problems in the structure of your documents.

Good luck. Prepare to get better at cussing at your code!