Excel Import versus XML Import

[Gaz]

I am currently developing an ASP.NET 2.0 app part of the app will involve
collecting a large amount of data offline and then importing this data into
the system

My question is what will be more effiecient from a system
resources/performance point of view. If I go down the Excel route then for
every sheet parsed (and there could be up to 20 of them) I will have check
5400 cells to see if there is any data in them.

If I use an XML file to store the information (with the aid of a windows app
on the client) there would be a maximum of about 1800 nodes per sheet.

So will I be better importing from Excel or XML?

[V]

Well first of all,

If you use Excel, then you have to be aware of the two things:
1. You will require a licensed version of Excel to be present on every
machine where the data is being generated.

2. You will need to automate excel on the server, and that has its own
set of problems, because Office application are not designed to run in
a server mode, unless you are working with Office 2003, which allows
this kind of functionality using VSTO.
Check out for Server-Side Automation:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/257757/EN-US/
Check out for Server-side using VSTO:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/de...gistration.asp

- V

Gaz wrote:

I am currently developing an ASP.NET 2.0 app part of the app will involve
collecting a large amount of data offline and then importing this data into
the system

My question is what will be more effiecient from a system
resources/performance point of view. If I go down the Excel route then for
every sheet parsed (and there could be up to 20 of them) I will have check
5400 cells to see if there is any data in them.

If I use an XML file to store the information (with the aid of a windows app
on the client) there would be a maximum of about 1800 nodes per sheet.

So will I be better importing from Excel or XML?

[Markus]

2. You will need to automate excel on the server, and that has its

own set of problems, because Office application are not designed to
run in a server mode, unless you are working with Office 2003, which
allows this kind of functionality using VSTO.

Kinda true, but for reading purposes you can also connect via ODBC / ADO
to Excel... additionally, if you only read excel in once and store the
data anywhere else (e.g. database), then having a windows service in the
background might be more efficient and would not interfere with any
asp.net stuff.

hth
Markus