Visual Studio 2015 - Manipulating Excel? - vb.net

Question

I have 750 Excel files that I want to
clean by deleting columns of data that have a heading with an asterisk,
then take some of that data and put it in a new workbook worksheet, and other data into the same workbook worksheet, and some other data into a second new workbook.
I created a WPF project in Visual Studio 2015 with a little dialog box with 2 radio buttons for
clean data,
produce new files.
This is my VB code:
Class MainWindow
Dim wb As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Workbook
Dim ws As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Worksheet
Dim iCol As Integer
Dim strName As String
Dim iIndex As Integer
Dim strPath As String
Dim strFile As String
Private Sub button_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs) Handles button.Click
If cleanRadioButton.IsChecked = True Then
strPath = "c:\test\old\"
strFile = Dir(strPath & "*.csv")
Do While strFile <> ""
wb = wb.Open(Filename:=strPath & strFile)
'Loop through the sheets.
For iIndex = 1 To Application.Worksheets.Count
ws = Application.Worksheets(iIndex)
'Loop through the columns.
For iCol = 1 To ws.UsedRange.Columns.Count
'Check row 1 of this column for the char of *
If InStr(ws.Cells(10, iCol).Value, "*") > 0 Then
'We have found a column with the char of *
ws.Columns(iCol).EntireColumn.Delete
ws.Columns(iCol + 1).EntireColumn.Delete
ws.Columns(iCol + 2).EntireColumn.Delete
End If
Next iCol
Next iIndex
wb.SaveAs(Filename:="C:\test\new\" & wb.Name, FileFormat:=xlOpenXMLWorkbook)
wb.Close(SaveChanges:=False)
strFile = Dir()
Loop
MessageBox.Show("The csv files have now been cleaned. Congrats.")
Else inputRadioButton.IsChecked = True
MessageBox.Show("The data has now been split into Trajectory and ForcePlate input files. High 5.")
End If
End Sub
End Class
I get 3 errors but can't work out how to solve them.
a) Worksheets is not a member of Application [line 19]
b) Worksheets is not a member of Application [line 20]
c) 'xlOpenXMLWorkbook' is not declared. It may be inaccessible due to its protection level.

Answer 1

For a) and b), the pattern is :
Application.Workbooks.Worksheets
For c), easiest way out :
Go into VBE from Excel (Alt + F11)
Press F2 to display the Object Browser
Look for xlOpenXMLWorkbook
Result : Const xlOpenXMLWorkbook = 51 (&H33)
So, just replace it by the value 51!
Here is your amended code :
Class MainWindow
Dim wb As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Workbook
Dim ws As Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Worksheet
Dim iCol As Integer
Dim strName As String
Dim iIndex As Integer
Dim wbIndex As Integer
Dim strPath As String
Dim strFile As String
Private Sub button_Click(sender As Object, e As RoutedEventArgs) Handles button.Click
If cleanRadioButton.IsChecked = True Then
strPath = "c:\test\old\"
strFile = Dir(strPath & "*.csv")
Do While strFile <> ""
wb = wb.Open(Filename:=strPath & strFile)
'Loop through the sheets.
For wbIndex = 1 To Application.Workbooks.Count
For iIndex = 1 To Application.Workbooks(wbIndex).Worksheets.Count
Ws = Application.Workbooks(wbIndex).Worksheets(iIndex)
'Loop through the columns.
For iCol = 1 To Ws.UsedRange.Columns.Count
'Check row 1 of this column for the char of *
If InStr(Ws.Cells(10, iCol).Value, "*") > 0 Then
'We have found a column with the char of *
Ws.Columns(iCol).EntireColumn.Delete
Ws.Columns(iCol + 1).EntireColumn.Delete
Ws.Columns(iCol + 2).EntireColumn.Delete
End If
Next iCol
Next iIndex
Next wbIndex
'Const xlOpenXMLWorkbook = 51 (&H33)
wb.SaveAs(Filename:="C:\test\new\" & wb.Name, FileFormat:=51)
wb.Close(SaveChanges:=False)
strFile = Dir()
Loop
MessageBox.Show ("The csv files have now been cleaned. Congrats.")
Else: inputRadioButton.IsChecked = True
MessageBox.Show ("The data has now been split into Trajectory and ForcePlate input files. High 5.")
End If
End Sub
End Class

Answer 2

To reference a worksheet yau can use either ws = wb.Worksheets(1) or ws = wb.Worksheets("Sheet1") or ws = excelApp.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1) and to use xlOpenXMLWorkbook use the name of the corresponding Enum XlFileFormatas well: XlFileFormat.xlOpenXMLWorkbook.
This simplified example opens the workbook Test.xlsx, writes text in cell A1 and saves it to new folder.
Imports System.IO
Imports Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel
Public Class MainWindow
Private Sub Button1_Click(sender As Object, e As EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
Dim excelApp As Application
Dim wb As _Workbook
Dim ws As _Worksheet
Dim rng As Range
Dim strPathOld = "c:\temp\old"
Dim strPathNew = "c:\temp\new"
' get excel application reference
excelApp = New Application
excelApp.Visible = True
excelApp.ScreenUpdating = True
' open the workbook
wb = excelApp.Workbooks.Open(Path.Combine(strPathOld, "Test.xlsx"))
' set reference to the sheet with index 1
ws = wb.Worksheets(1)
' or use sheet name
' ws = wb.Worksheets("Sheet1")
' or use ActiveWorkbook if it exists
' ws = excelApp.ActiveWorkbook.Worksheets(1)
' write text in cell A1
rng = ws.Range("A1")
rng.Formula = "Test123"
' save the workbook in new location
wb.SaveAs(Filename:=Path.Combine(strPathNew, wb.Name), _
FileFormat:=XlFileFormat.xlOpenXMLWorkbook)
excelApp.Quit()
End Sub
End Class
Note: add reference to MS Office Interop for your version of Excel(here example for Excel 2007).