Getting Started

To get started simply add ExcelProvider.dll as a reference to your project.

If you are using F# scripts then just add the dll using the #r option.

If you then open FSharp.Interop.Excel you will have access to the Type Provider functionality.

You can then create a type for an individual workbook. The simplest option is to specify just the name of the workbook. You will then be given typed access to the data held in the first sheet. The first row of the sheet will be treated as field names and the subsequent rows will be treated as values for these fields.

Parameters

When creating the type you can specify the following parameters:

FileName Location of the Excel file.
SheetName Name of sheet containing data. Defaults to first sheet.
Range Specification using A1:D3 type addresses of one or more ranges. Defaults to use whole sheet.
HasHeaders Whether the range contains the names of the columns as its first line.
ForceString Specifies forcing data to be processed as strings. Defaults to false.

All but the first are optional.

The parameters can be specified by position or by using the name - for example the following are equivalent:

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type MultipleSheets1 = ExcelFile<"MultipleSheets.xlsx", "B">
type MultipleSheets2 = ExcelFile<"MultipleSheets.xlsx", SheetName="B">

Example

This example shows the use of the type provider in an F# script on a sheet containing three rows of data:

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// reference the type provider dll
#r "ExcelProvider.dll"
open FSharp.Interop.Excel

// Let the type provider do it's work
type DataTypesTest = ExcelFile<"DataTypes.xlsx">
let file = new DataTypesTest()
let row = file.Data |> Seq.head
let test = row.Float

And the variable test has the following value:

No value has been returned