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EDN Delphi

Delphi 3 - Delphi and Microsoft Office: Automating Excel

and Word - Page 3

RATING

By: Charles Calvert

Abstract: The goal of this two-part paper is to get you up to speed automating Excel and Word from a Delphi
application.

Delphi and Microsoft Office: Automating Excel and

Word

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Copyright 1997 by Charlie Calvert

Here is the examples.zip file.

Finding the Constants Used in Excel

You can determine all the constants used by Excel by reading its type library. There are at least two simple ways
to read a type library.
1. You can read the type library with a third party tool, such as the OleView application that ships with the
Microsoft SDK.
2. You can ask Delphi to read the library for you, and to translate the information stored in the library into
Object Pascal. Obviously, this is the preferred technique.
I have included the translations of the Excel and Word type libraries with this article. However, if you want to
create your own versions of these libraries, then you can select Project | Import Type Library from the Delphi
menu, and then select the appropriate type library. A Delphi translation of the type library will be created
automatically. (Be sure you are using Delphi 3.01 or later when importing the type library, as some important
fixes were made to this technology between Delphi 3.0 and Delphi 3.01.)
There will be a number of warnings at the top of the type library, but you can ignore them. Most of these warnings
have to do with name conflicts. For instance, if Excel uses an Object Pascal keyword in its code, then we need to
make an alias for that keyword. For instance, Excel uses End in several places. This is a Delphi keyword, and so
we append a space on to the end of it, converting the word End to End_. This puts an end to name conflicts.
The files you want to import usually have either a TLB or EXE extension. When working with Office 97, however,
you want one with an OLB extension. The file to use with Word is MSWORD8.OLB, and the one to use with Excel is
EXCEL8.OLB. On my system, I found these entries in the ...Microsoft OfficeOffice directory.
The Pascal translations of the interfaces to all the objects used in Excel or Word are found in the files created by
importing EXCEL8.OLB and MSWORD8.OLB. Throughout this part of the paper, I will ignore these interfaces, and
show you how to work directly with variant objects. However, in Part II of the paper I will return to this subject,
and show you how to work with interfaces. At that time, I will present a discussion of the relative merits of
working with variants and interfaces.
Storing and Accessing Data in an Excel Worksheet
Throughout the next few sections of this paper I will be working with an example program called Excel3. The
source for the main form of this program is shown in Listing 3. Just take a quick look at the code for now, and then
read on to get an explanation of how it works.
Listing 3: The source for the main form of the Excel3 program.
unit Main;
interface
uses
Windows, Messages, SysUtils,
Classes, Graphics, Controls,
Forms, Dialogs, StdCtrls;
type
TForm1 = class(TForm)
Button1: TButton;
Button2: TButton;
procedure Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
procedure FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
procedure Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
private
XLApp: Variant;
procedure InsertData;
procedure ChangeColumns;
procedure HandleRange;
public
end;

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var
Form1: TForm1;
implementation

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uses
ComObj, XLConst;
{$R *.DFM}
procedure TForm1.FormDestroy(Sender: TObject);
begin
if not VarIsEmpty(XLApp) then begin
XLApp.DisplayAlerts := False; // Discard unsaved files....
XLApp.Quit;
end;

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end;
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
XLApp:= CreateOleObject('Excel.Application');
XLApp.Visible := True;
XLApp.Workbooks.Add(xlWBatWorkSheet);
XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets[1].Name := 'Delphi Data';
InsertData;
HandleRange;
ChangeColumns;
end;
procedure TForm1.InsertData;
var
i: Integer;
Sheet: Variant;
begin
Sheet := XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets['Delphi Data'];
for i := 1 to 10 do
Sheet.Cells[i, 1] := i;
Sheet.Cells[i, 1] := '=Sum(A1:A10)';
end;
procedure TForm1.HandleRange;
var
Range: Variant;
begin
Range :=
XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets['Delphi Data'].Range['C1:F25'];
Range.Formula := '=RAND()';
Range.Columns.Interior.ColorIndex := 3;
Range.Borders.LineStyle := xlContinuous;
end;
procedure TForm1.ChangeColumns;
var
ColumnRange: Variant;
begin
ColumnRange := XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets['Delphi Data'].Columns;
ColumnRange.Columns[1].ColumnWidth := 5;
ColumnRange.Columns[1].Font.Bold := True;
ColumnRange.Columns[1].Font.Color := clBlue;
end;
procedure TForm1.Button2Click(Sender: TObject);
var
Sheet: Variant;
Num: Integer;
begin
Sheet := XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets['Delphi Data'];
Num := Sheet.Range['C1:F25'].Columns.Interior.PatternColor;
ShowMessage(Format('Value: %x', [Num]));
end;
end.

As I implied above, it is easy to actually insert data in a spreadsheet. In fact, the technique involved
is very similar to what you would use putting data into a TStringGrid control in Delphi.
To get started, open up Excel and create a new spreadsheet:
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
begin
XLApp:= CreateOleObject('Excel.Application');
XLApp.Visible := True;
XLApp.Workbooks.Add(xlWBatWorkSheet);
XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets[1].Name := 'Delphi Data';
InsertData;
HandleRange;
ChangeColumns;
end;

As you can, see, I create a single workbook with one worksheet in it. The code then names the
worksheet Delphi Data. The InsertData, HandleRange and ChangeColumns calls are custom Delphi
routines which I will now proceed to describe.
To insert data into the spreadsheet, execute the following function:
procedure TForm1.InsertData;
var
i: Integer;
Sheet: Variant;
begin
Sheet := XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets['Delphi Data'];
for i := 1 to 10 do
Sheet.Cells[i, 1] := i;
Sheet.Cells[i, 1] := '=Sum(A1:A10)';
end;

The method starts by retrieving a pointer to the worksheet you want to manipulate. As you know, this
pointer is an instance of IDispatch that is stored inside a variant. You don't need to know anything
about how IDispatch works in order to call the methods of this object.
The code proceeds to insert ten integers into the sheet. The Cells property works exactly as you
would expect, except Excel puts the Row first and the Column second.
After inserting the numbers in the worksheet, the final stage is to insert a formula and add up the
column of numbers. To do this, you simply insert the formula much as you would if you were in Excel
itself. In particular, you store the formula in string, and then insert it into the appropriate cell:
Sheet.Cells[i, 1] := '=Sum(A1:A10)';

Working with Columns and Range Attributes

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Sometimes you might want to perform an operation on a range of data in the spreadsheet. To do this,
you use the Excel Range object:
Sheet.Range['C1:F25'].Formula := '=RAND()';

This code could be inserted into the bottom of the InsertData method. It fills all the cells between C1
and F25 with random numbers between 0 and 1.
One of the key objects in both Excel and Word is the Range object. It allows you to work with a range
of cells or columns at one time. In either Word or Excel, you generally enter or read data by using the
Range object. In short, if you want to insert text into a Word document, then you will generally use
the Range object!
BEGIN NOTE:
With Word, it is also possible to insert data via a considerably simpler method. For instance, the
following procedure will enter data at the current insertion point into a currently open document in
Microsoft Word:
procedure TForm1.Button1Click(Sender: TObject);
var
V: Variant;
begin
V := GetActiveOleObject('Word.Basic');
V.Insert('Sam');
end;

In this case, I have chosen not to open a new version of Word, but instead call GetActiveOleObject to
get a handle to a document in an instance of Word that is already running. This kind of technology is
very easy to use, and is perfect for some projects. It does not, however, have the power of the
technology I am showing you in this paper.
END NOTE
To access a Range object in Excel, simply specify the Range with which you want to work:
Range := Sheet.Range['C1:F25'];

In this case the code defines a range from cell C1 to cell F25. Any operations performed on the
returned Range object will affect all the cells in that range.
Here is a simple function showing how to change the values and appearance of a range of cells:
procedure TForm1.HandleRange;
var
Range: Variant;
begin
Range :=
XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets['Delphi Data'].Range['C1:F25'];
Range.Formula := '=RAND()';
Range.Columns.Interior.ColorIndex := 3;
Range.Borders.LineStyle := xlContinuous;
end;

The first line of code returns a pointer to the range you want to manipulate. The second line fills all
the values in the range C1:F25 with random numbers between 0 and 1, as explained earlier.
The third line of code changes the color of the entire block of cells to red. You can use the Excel
online help to see the values in the ColorIndex, but the first few default values are as follows: black,
white, red, green, blue, yellow, purple, cyan. Red is the third item in the list, so setting the
ColorIndex to 3 makes the selected range of cells Red.
At the same time that you change the color, you also loose your borders. This is a peculiarity of Excel,
and it can be worked around by resetting the LineStyle of the selected cells as shown in the last line
of code in the procedure. Once again, when you are working with constants like this, you can find
them in the XLCONST.pas or EXCELTLB.pas files included with the example programs accompanying
this article, or can retrieve them from the type library as explained earlier.
For those who are interested, here is a line of code that changes the background of a range:
Range.Columns.Interior.Pattern := xlPatternCrissCross;

The following function changes the width and font of a column:

procedure TForm1.ChangeColumns;
var
ColumnRange: Variant;
begin
ColumnRange := XLApp.Workbooks[1].WorkSheets['Delphi Data'].Columns;
ColumnRange.Columns[1].ColumnWidth := 5;
ColumnRange.Columns[1].Font.Bold := True;
ColumnRange.Columns[1].Font.Color := clBlue;
end;

As you can see, when you want to work with the columns in a worksheet, you can access them from a
Range object. In particular, the Range object contains a collection of columns that you can access
using array notation.
To change the width of a column, use the ColumnWidth property, and to change the Font, use the
Font property. Going into much more detail would be pointless, as this code is easy to write.

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Reply Posted by brian goss on Dec 25 2011

Delphi 3 - Delphi and Microsoft Office: Automating Excel and Word - Page 3
Useful article, I'm using OLE to grab data from multiple excel '07 files in Delphi I'm trying
to figure out how to ignore cells which have an error eg #NAME? or #DIV/0 The VB syntax
given on...
Reply Posted by James Nelson on Sep 14 2004

Delphi 3 - Delphi and Microsoft Office: Automating Excel and Word - Page 3
At work the 'IT' team use VB and VBA for all MS Office 'automation' usually with those
lovely 'Runtime Error 1004' or such. I was writing a reporting application from a backend
DB using Delphi...
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