Using VB.Net Core 8.0 where Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel Doesn't Work for MS Excel 2016

Question

In my console Application I want to use Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel library. I use Visual Studio 2022 and Microsoft Office 2016. I added a reference Microsoft.Excel 16.0 Object Library and in my class I added using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel after installing Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel nuget package; When I click build it doesn't shows any error and tells that Build Complete, but when I run my Application I'm getting this error in Break Mode

System.IO.FileNotFoundException: 'Could not load file or assembly 'office, Version=15.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=71e9bce111e9429c'. The system cannot find the file specified.'

Here is what the program looks like

using Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;

class ExcelInteropExample
{
    static void Main()
    {
        // Create Excel application instance
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Application app = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Workbook workbook = app.Workbooks.Add(Type.Missing);
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Worksheet worksheet = null;
        worksheet = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Worksheet)workbook.Sheets["Sheet1"];
        worksheet = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel._Worksheet)workbook.ActiveSheet;
        worksheet.Name = "Exported from DataTable";

        // Create and populate a System.Data.DataTable for testing
        System.Data.DataTable Dt = new System.Data.DataTable();
        Dt.Columns.Add("Column1", typeof(string));
        Dt.Columns.Add("Column2", typeof(int));

        // Add some sample data to the DataTable
        Dt.Rows.Add("Data1", 1);
        Dt.Rows.Add("Data2", 2);

        // Write data from DataTable to Excel worksheet
        for (int i = 0; i < Dt.Rows.Count; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < Dt.Columns.Count; j++)
            {
                worksheet.Cells[i + 1, j + 1] = Dt.Rows[i][j].ToString();
            }
        }

        // Save the workbook
        workbook.SaveAs("C:\\Users\\lenovo\\Downloads\\ExcelInteropExample.xlsx", XlFileFormat.xlWorkbookNormal, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, XlSaveAsAccessMode.xlExclusive, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing, Type.Missing);
    }
}

Answer 1

There is no need to use any specific NuGet packages if you want to automate Office applications from any .Net 8 based application. All you need is to add a COM reference to the required type library:

Then add the required COM reference to the project:

As a result your project file should like in the following way for the console application:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <COMReference Include="Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel">
      <WrapperTool>tlbimp</WrapperTool>
      <VersionMinor>9</VersionMinor>
      <VersionMajor>1</VersionMajor>
      <Guid>00020813-0000-0000-c000-000000000046</Guid>
      <Lcid>0</Lcid>
      <Isolated>false</Isolated>
      <EmbedInteropTypes>true</EmbedInteropTypes>
    </COMReference>
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>