Excel Calculation Engine … does it or does it not exist in open xml sdk?

[hchanParticipant]

Hi,

I’m a bit confused as to what the open xml sdk offers and what it does not wrt Excel.

Does it have a calculation engine?

If I open an excel file, change a value(A1) and read another cell(B2) that uses a formula(A1*2)
will B2 update with that value?

If it doesn’t update immediately (cache or something), can I save the changed cell (A1) into the existing .xlsx file and REOPEN the file again. i.e., if “re”-calculate doesn’t work, does “calculate” on open work?

thx,

Henry

[Eric WhiteKeymaster]

Hi Henry,

The Open-Xml-Sdk does not contain a calculation engine. Its purpose is only to read and write the file formats.

Typical uses with regards to Excel are:

• Generation of spreadsheets
• Querying spreadsheets and retrieving data

Modifying existing spreadsheets is a less common and useful scenario for the Open-Xml-Sdk.

If you need to have an actual calculation engine, you need to automate Excel. I believe that there are commercial products other than Excel that contain Excel compatible calculation engines, but I have no experience with them.

Regards, Eric

[Author]

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