No overload for method 'Open' takes '13' arguments

Question

I’m trying to open an XLS file and then read some cell values. It doesn’t work and I’m a little puzzled. When I try to compile the application it tells me the following message: No overload for method 'Open' takes '13' arguments However I have checked the method and it seems that there are fifteen variables to parse in the method but I don’t know what the other missing two are. Indeed I am using an example posted on the Internet but it doesn’t even compile. Excel.Application ExcelObj = new Excel.Application(); ExcelObj.Visible = true; openFileDialog1.FileName = test.xls; // *********** Here is the call to Open a Workbook in Excel **************** Excel.Workbook theWorkbook = ExcelObj.Workbooks.Open( openFileDialog1.FileName 0 false 5   true Excel.XlPlatform.xlWindows 	 false false 0 true); // get the collection of sheets in the workbook Excel.Sheets sheets = theWorkbook.Worksheets; // get the first and only worksheet from the collection // of worksheets Excel.Worksheet worksheet = (Excel.Worksheet)sheets.get_Item(1);

vitenyi_i · Answer

ahhh - of course... I had another idea: use conditional compilation if you can know the version of the client you're building for: #define VersionX .... #if VersionX <one version of the open statement for Excel version x #elif VersionY <one version of the open statement for Excel version y etc. but of course you have to include (comment or uncomment) only the relevant define conditional compilation constant.

joelsearles · Answer

I tried to implement the switch statmenet idea but it still crashes on the open methods that aren't implemented in the version of excel I am currently compiling under. i.e. if im under office XP the office 2000 open method says no overload for method. Any other ideas?

spgilmore · Answer

Heck do it in VB.NET then! This is .NET afterall... If it eases the suffering it might be worth building a separate assembly in VB.NET and using that in your C# classes.

vitenyi_i · Answer

Wonderful isn't it? Microsoft could have made it a little less version dependent but you've got to code separate open statements for every version of Excel (it's much nicer in VB since Excel exposes these methods with optional parameters to VB so as long as you can accept the default values of the last dozen or so parameters you can just specify the first one or two). So you need to code something like: switch (ExcelVersion) { case 8: ....Open(some horrible param list) break; case 9: ....Open(some other horrible param list) break; case 10: ....Open(some other horrible param list) break; etc.

spgilmore · Answer

Chances are the example from the internet is using a different version of Excel and that version actually takes 13 parameters. To determine the next 15 it would depend on which version you're running. Rather than tinker with that can you post the function prototype as it appears in the intellisense popup? I know it's a pain since you can't cut and paste (especially with 15 parameters!) but if we can figure out those last 2 parameters you're all set.