Insert a new worksheet into a spreadsheet document

This topic shows how to use the classes in the Open XML SDK for Office to insert a new worksheet into a spreadsheet document programmatically.

Getting a SpreadsheetDocument Object

In the Open XML SDK, the SpreadsheetDocument class represents an Excel document package. To open and work with an Excel document, you create an instance of the SpreadsheetDocument class from the document. After you create the instance from the document, you can then obtain access to the main workbook part that contains the worksheets. The text in the document is represented in the package as XML using SpreadsheetML markup.

To create the class instance from the document that you call one of the Open methods. Several are provided, each with a different signature. The sample code in this topic uses the Open(String, Boolean) method with a signature that requires two parameters. The first parameter takes a full path string that represents the document that you want to open. The second parameter is either true or false and represents whether you want the file to be opened for editing. Any changes that you make to the document will not be saved if this parameter is false.

The code that calls the Open method is shown in the following using statement.

// Open the document for editing.
using (SpreadsheetDocument spreadSheet = SpreadsheetDocument.Open(docName, true))

Basic structure of a spreadsheetML document

The basic document structure of a SpreadsheetML document consists of the Sheets and Sheet elements, which reference the worksheets in the workbook. A separate XML file is created for each worksheet. For example, the SpreadsheetML for a Workbook that has two worksheets name MySheet1 and MySheet2 is located in the Workbook.xml file and is shown in the following code example.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes" ?> 
    <workbook xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main" xmlns:r="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/officeDocument/2006/relationships">
        <sheets>
            <sheet name="MySheet1" sheetId="1" r:id="rId1" /> 
            <sheet name="MySheet2" sheetId="2" r:id="rId2" /> 
        </sheets>
    </workbook>

The worksheet XML files contain one or more block level elements such as SheetData represents the cell table and contains one or more Row elements. A row contains one or more Cell elements. Each cell contains a CellValue element that represents the value of the cell. For example, the SpreadsheetML for the first worksheet in a workbook, that only has the value 100 in cell A1, is located in the Sheet1.xml file and is shown in the following code example.

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> 
    <worksheet xmlns="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/spreadsheetml/2006/main">
        <sheetData>
            <row r="1">
                <c r="A1">
                    <v>100</v> 
                </c>
            </row>
        </sheetData>
    </worksheet>

Using the Open XML SDK, you can create document structure and content that uses strongly-typed classes that correspond to SpreadsheetML elements. You can find these classes in the DocumentFormat.OpenXML.Spreadsheet namespace. The following table lists the class names of the classes that correspond to the workbook, sheets, sheet, worksheet, and sheetData elements.

SpreadsheetML Element Open XML SDK Class Description
<workbook/> DocumentFormat.OpenXML.Spreadsheet.Workbook The root element for the main document part.
<sheets/> DocumentFormat.OpenXML.Spreadsheet.Sheets The container for the block level structures such as sheet, fileVersion, and others specified in the ISO/IEC 29500 specification.
<sheet/> DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet.Sheet A sheet that points to a sheet definition file.
<worksheet/> DocumentFormat.OpenXML.Spreadsheet. Worksheet A sheet definition file that contains the sheet data.
<sheetData/> DocumentFormat.OpenXML.Spreadsheet.SheetData The cell table, grouped together by rows.
<row/> DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet.Row A row in the cell table.
<c/> DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet.Cell A cell in a row.
<v/> DocumentFormat.OpenXml.Spreadsheet.CellValue The value of a cell.

Sample Code

Following is the complete sample code in both C# and Visual Basic.

static void InsertWorksheet(string docName)
{
    // Open the document for editing.
    using (SpreadsheetDocument spreadSheet = SpreadsheetDocument.Open(docName, true))
    {
        WorkbookPart workbookPart = spreadSheet.WorkbookPart ?? spreadSheet.AddWorkbookPart();
        // Add a blank WorksheetPart.
        WorksheetPart newWorksheetPart = workbookPart.AddNewPart<WorksheetPart>();
        newWorksheetPart.Worksheet = new Worksheet(new SheetData());

        Sheets sheets = workbookPart.Workbook.GetFirstChild<Sheets>() ?? workbookPart.Workbook.AppendChild(new Sheets());
        string relationshipId = workbookPart.GetIdOfPart(newWorksheetPart);

        // Get a unique ID for the new worksheet.
        uint sheetId = 1;
        if (sheets.Elements<Sheet>().Count() > 0)
        {
            sheetId = (sheets.Elements<Sheet>().Select(s => s.SheetId?.Value).Max() + 1) ?? (uint)sheets.Elements<Sheet>().Count() + 1;
        }

        // Give the new worksheet a name.
        string sheetName = "Sheet" + sheetId;

        // Append the new worksheet and associate it with the workbook.
        Sheet sheet = new Sheet() { Id = relationshipId, SheetId = sheetId, Name = sheetName };
        sheets.Append(sheet);
    }
}

See also

Open XML SDK class library reference