PDF is a widely accepted and platform-independent file format. Converting Excel to PDF ensures that the document can be accessed and viewed by anyone with a PDF reader, thereby eliminating compatibility issues and guaranteeing consistent presentation of the data.

Furthermore, PDF files are usually read-only. In regulated industries, such as finance, healthcare, or legal sectors, compliance requirements may dictate that documents should be in non-editable formats. Converting Excel to PDF helps fulfill these regulatory obligations, ensuring data integrity and authenticity.

This article will give three examples to demonstrate how to use C# to convert Excel to PDF.

• Convert Excel XLS XLSX to PDF in C#
• Convert a Specific Worksheet to PDF in C#
• Convert Each Worksheet to a Separate PDF File in C#

C# Excel to PDF Converter Library

To use C# for Excel to PDF conversion, Spire.XLS for .NET library is required. It is a powerful library that provides full support for working with Excel files in .NET platforms. It gives developers the flexibility to convert Excel to a variety of file formats such as Excel to PDF, Excel to HTML, Excel to image, Excel to CSV, etc., enabling seamless integration with different applications and systems.

Installation:

Before getting started, download the C# Excel to PDF converter to manually add the DLL files as references in your .NET project. Or install it directly via NuGet.

PM> Install-Package Spire.XLS

Classes and Properties:

Once installed, you can use the following classes, properties and methods provided by the Spire.XLS for .NET library to programmatically convert Excel to PDF in C#.

Convert Excel XLS XLSX to PDF in C#

To save Excel as PDF in C#, simply load a .xls or .xlsx file, and then call the SaveToFile method to save it in PDF format. During the process, you can control the conversion settings through the ConverterSetting class.

The following code example shows how to convert an Excel (XLS/XLSX) file to PDF.

using Spire.Xls;

namespace ConvertExcelToPDF
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Workbook instance
            Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

            //Load a sample Excel file 
            workbook.LoadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Planner.xlsx");

            //Set worksheets to fit to page when converting
            workbook.ConverterSetting.SheetFitToPage = true;

            //Save Excel XLSX as PDF
            workbook.SaveToFile("XlsxToPdf.pdf", FileFormat.PDF);
        }
    }
}

Convert a Specific Worksheet to PDF in C#

The Worksheet.SaveToPdf() method is used to save a specific worksheet as PDF. If you want to set the page margins, sizes, or other attributes of the worksheet to achieve a desired rendering effect, you can use the corresponding properties of the PageSetup Class.

The following code example shows how to convert a specific worksheet to PDF.

using Spire.Xls;

namespace ConvertWorksheetToPdf
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Workbook instance
            Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

            //Load a sample Excel file
            workbook.LoadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Planner.xlsx");


            //Get the third worksheet
            Worksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[2];

            //Set page margins
            sheet.PageSetup.TopMargin = 0.6;
            sheet.PageSetup.BottomMargin = 0.6;
            sheet.PageSetup.LeftMargin = 0.6;
            sheet.PageSetup.RightMargin = 0.6;

            //Set worksheet to fit to page when converting
            workbook.ConverterSetting.SheetFitToPage = true;

            //Convert the worksheet to PDF
            sheet.SaveToPdf("WorksheetToPdf.pdf");
        }
    }
}

Convert Each Worksheet to a Separate PDF File in C#

The first code example converts each worksheet into a single page in a PDF file. With Spire.XLS for .NET library, it is also allowed to iterate through the worksheets and save each as a separate PDF file.

The following code example shows how to convert each worksheet in an Excel file to a separate PDF file.

using Spire.Xls;

namespace WorksheetToPdf
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            //Create a Workbook instance
            Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

            //Load a sample Excel file
            workbook.LoadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Planner.xlsx");

            //Set worksheets to fit to page when converting
            workbook.ConverterSetting.SheetFitToPage = true;

            //Iterate through the worksheets in the Excel file 
            foreach (Worksheet sheet in workbook.Worksheets)
            {
                //Convert each worksheet to a different PDF file
                string FileName = sheet.Name + ".pdf";
                sheet.SaveToPdf("Sheets\\" + FileName);
            }
        }
    }
}

Free Excel to PDF Online Converter

Try this online converter to convert your Excel XLS or XLSX files to PDF format for free. But please be aware that the free converter only supports simple conversion without additional settings. You can upload an Excel file and wait a few seconds to get the Excel to PDF conversion done.

Conclusion

In this post, you have gained knowledge on how to use C# to convert Excel to PDF programmatically. The main classes, properties, and methods involved in the Excel to PDF conversion process have been thoroughly explained, and complete sample code for converting an Excel workbook or worksheet to PDF have also been provided.

To explore more about the Spire.XLS for .NET library, refer to the documentation, where you can find other Excel generation, processing, and conversion features along with the code examples.

• Convert PDF to Excel in C#
• Convert Excel to SVG in C#
• Convert Excel to CSV or CSV to Excel in C#

The main advantage of PDF files is their ability to always maintain the format and layout of the original document, which makes them ideal for sharing and printing. However, they are often difficult to edit or modify without specialized software. In this case, converting PDF to Word provides you with greater flexibility. With this conversion, you can easily make various changes to the document content, such as modifying the text, adding or deleting text, and adjusting formatting and styles to make it meet your needs. In this article, I will show you a simple but effective way to convert PDF to Word via Python.

• Python Library for PDF Conversion
• Convert PDF to DOC
• Convert PDF to DOCX
• Set Document Properties at Conversion
• Get a Free License for the Library

Python Library for PDF Conversion

Spire.PDF for Python is a powerful PDF manipulation API that allows you to create, modify or convert PDF files on Python platforms. With it, you are able to use Python code to convert PDF to Word effortlessly and set document properties during the conversion. Before that, please install Spire.PDF for Python and plum-dispatch v1.7.4 using the following pip commands.

pip install Spire.PDF

This article covers more details of the installation: How to Install Spire.PDF for Python in VS Code

Convert PDF to DOC in Python

If you want to edit the content of PDF, converting it to Word format first is a good choice. Take PDF to DOC conversion as an example. You only need to load the PDF and save it in DOC format to the desired location.

Steps

1. Import the necessary library modules.
2. Create a PdfDocument object.
3. Use the PdfDocument.LoadFromFile() method to load a PDF file from the specified path.
4. Call the PdfDocument.SaveToFile() method to save the PDF in Word format, specifying FileFormat as DOC.
5. Close the PdfDocument object.

Sample Code

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

# Create a PdfDocument object
pdf = PdfDocument()

# Load a PDF file from the specified path
pdf.LoadFromFile("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/Sample.pdf")

# Save the PDF in DOC format
pdf.SaveToFile("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/ToDoc.doc", FileFormat.DOC)

# Close the PdfDocument object
pdf.Close()

Convert PDF to DOCX in Python

This method is the same as the one above. You only need to specify the format as DOCX when saving the generated file at the end.

Steps

1. Import the necessary library modules.
2. Create a PdfDocument object.
3. Use the PdfDocument.LoadFromFile() method to load a PDF file from the specified path.
4. Call the PdfDocument.SaveToFile() method to save the PDF in Word format, specifying FileFormat as DOCX.
5. Close the PdfDocument object.

Sample Code

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

# Create a PdfDocument object
pdf = PdfDocument()

# Load a PDF file from the specified path
pdf.LoadFromFile("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/Sample.pdf")

# Save the PDF in DOCX format
pdf.SaveToFile("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/ToDocx.docx", FileFormat.DOCX)

# Close the PdfDocument object
pdf.Close()

Set Document Properties at Conversion in Python

In addition to regular conversions, you can also customize document properties during PDF to Word conversion. This can help you better categorize and manage your documents.

Steps

1. Import the required library modules.
2. Create a PdfToDocConverter object and pass in the path of the PDF file to be converted as a parameter.
3. Customize the properties of the converted Word document through the properties of PdfToDocConverter class.
4. Call the PdfToDocConverter.SaveToDocx() method to save the PDF in Word format.

Sample Code

from spire.pdf.common import *
from spire.pdf import *

# Create a PdfToDocConverter object
converter = PdfToDocConverter("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/Sample.pdf")

# Customize the properties for the file
converter.DocxOptions.Title = "World Environment Day"
converter.DocxOptions.Subject = "Promoting Sustainable Actions for a Greener Future."
converter.DocxOptions.Tags = "Environmental Protection"
converter.DocxOptions.Categories = "Environment"
converter.DocxOptions.Commments = "This is an article about environmental protection."
converter.DocxOptions.Authors = "Mark"
converter.DocxOptions.LastSavedBy = "Johnny"
converter.DocxOptions.Revision = 5
converter.DocxOptions.Version = "V4.0"
converter.DocxOptions.ProgramName = "Green Development"
converter.DocxOptions.Company = "New Technology"
converter.DocxOptions.Manager = "Andy"

# Save the PDF in DOCX format
converter.SaveToDocx("C:/Users/Administrator/Desktop/SetProperties.docx")

Get a Free License for the Library to Convert PDF Files

You can get a free 30-day temporary license of Spire.PDF for Python to use Python script to convert PDF to Word without any evaluation limitation.

Conclusion

In this article, you have learned how to convert PDF to Word with Python easily. With Spire.PDF for Python library, you can also create PDF from scratch or edit it as needed. In short, this library simplifies the process and allows developers to focus on creating powerful applications that perform PDF manipulation tasks.

• Conversion Between Excel and CSV
• Convert PDF to Excel in Python
• Python HTML to PDF Conversion

The ability to read data from Excel files can be useful in various industries and scenarios where structured data needs to be accessed and utilized. By reading data from Excel, you can extract information, perform calculations, and analyze the data using programming languages or specialized tools. This process enables efficient data manipulation and facilitates tasks such as generating reports, performing statistical analysis, and automating workflows.

In this article, we're going to introduce how to read Excel files in Java by using E-iceblue's Free Java Excel library. The following sub-topics are included.

• Read Value of a Cell in Java
• Read Data of a Cell Range in Java
• Read Data of an Entire Worksheet in Java
• Read Formula in a Cell in Java
• Read Formula Result in a Cell in Java

Free Java Library for Reading Excel

Free Spire.XLS for Java, provided by E-iceblue Inc., is a small but powerful Java library that empowers developers to effortlessly create, read and modify Excel XLS and XLSX files. Although it is a community edition of the commercial library Spire.XLS for Java, it offers nearly all the Excel handling capabilities, excluding file format conversion. Users can use it to easily create an Excel document from scratch, or perform operations on existing documents, such as retrieving data from a worksheet.

To install the library from the Maven repository, simply add the following configuration to your project's pom.xml file.

<repositories>
        <repository>
            <id>com.e-iceblue</id>
            <name>e-iceblue</name>
            <url>https://repo.e-iceblue.com/nexus/content/groups/public/</url>
        </repository>
    </repositories>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>e-iceblue</groupId>
            <artifactId>spire.xls.free</artifactId>
            <version>5.1.0</version>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

Alternatively, you can download Free Spire.XLS for Java and manually import the jar file as dependency in your Java application.

Read Value of a Cell in Java

In Free Spire.XLS, the CellRange class represents a cell or a range, and the getValue() method under the class retrieves the value of a specific cell, which can be text, a number, or a formula. Follow the following steps to read the value of a cell in Java.

1. Create a Workbook object.
2. Load an Excel file into the Workbook object.
3. Get a specific worksheet from the Workbook object.
4. Get a specific cell range (in this case, cell C6) from the worksheet.
5. Retrieve the value of the cell using the getValue() method.

import com.spire.xls.CellRange;
    import com.spire.xls.Workbook;
    import com.spire.xls.Worksheet;
    
    public class ReadCellValue {
    
        public static void main(String[] args) {
    
            // Create a Workbook object
            Workbook wb = new Workbook();
    
            // Load an Excel file
            wb.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Score Sheet.xlsx");
    
            //Get a specific worksheet
            Worksheet sheet = wb.getWorksheets().get(0);
    
            // Get a specific cell
            CellRange certainCell = sheet.getCellRange("C6");
    
            // Get the value of the cell
            String cellValue = certainCell.getValue();
    
            // Print out result
            System.out.println("C6 has the value: " + cellValue);
        }
    }

Read Data of a Cell Range in Java

Now that we've learned how to get the value of a particular cell, it's easy to extract data from a cell region by looping through the cells one by one. The steps to read data of a specific cell range are as follows.

1. Create a Workbook object.
2. Load an Excel file into the Workbook object.
3. Get a specific worksheet from the Workbook object.
4. Get a cell range (in this case, A3:F6) from the worksheet.
5. Iterate through the cells in the range using nested loops.
6. Within each iteration, get a specific cell within the range.
7. Retrieve the value of the cell using the getValue() method.
8. Repeat the process for all cells in the range.

import com.spire.xls.CellRange;
    import com.spire.xls.Workbook;
    import com.spire.xls.Worksheet;
    
    public class ReadCellRange {
    
        public static void main(String[] args) {
    
            // Create a Workbook object
            Workbook wb = new Workbook();
    
            // Load an Excel file
            wb.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Score Sheet.xlsx");
    
            //Get a specific worksheet
            Worksheet sheet = wb.getWorksheets().get(0);
    
            // Get a cell range
            CellRange cellRange = sheet.getCellRange("A3:F6");
    
            // Iterate through the cells in the range
            for (int i = 0; i < cellRange.getRowCount(); i++) {
    
                for (int j = 0; j < cellRange.getColumnCount(); j++) {
    
                    // Get a specific cell
                    CellRange certainCell = cellRange.get(3 + i, 1 + j);
    
                    // Get the value of the cell
                    String cellValue = certainCell.getValue();
    
                    // Print out result
                    System.out.print(cellValue + " ");
                }
                System.out.println();
            }
        }
    }

Read Data of an Entire Worksheet in Java

To identify the range of cells containing data, employ the Worksheet.getAllocatedRange() method, which generates a CellRange object. By iterating through the cells within the range, you can access each cell and its corresponding value. Here are the steps to read the data of an entire worksheet in Java.

1. Create a Workbook object.
2. Load an existing Excel file into the Workbook object.
3. Get the first worksheet from the Workbook object.
4. Use the getAllocatedRange() method on the worksheet to retrieve the cell range that contains data.
5. Iterate through each row in the located range using a for loop.
6. Within each row iteration, iterate through each column in the located range using another for loop.
7. Get a specific cell within the located range using the get() method, passing the row and column indices.
8. Retrieve the value of the cell using the getValue() method.
9. Repeat the process for all cells in the range.

import com.spire.xls.CellRange;
    import com.spire.xls.Workbook;
    import com.spire.xls.Worksheet;
    
    public class ReadWorksheet {
    
        public static void main(String[] args) {
    
            //Create a Workbook object
            Workbook wb = new Workbook();
    
            //Load an existing Excel file
            wb.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Score Sheet.xlsx");
    
            //Get the first worksheet
            Worksheet sheet = wb.getWorksheets().get(0);
    
            //Get the cell range containing data
            CellRange locatedRange = sheet.getAllocatedRange();
    
            //Iterate through the rows
            for (int i = 0; i < locatedRange.getRows().length; i++) {
    
                //Iterate through the columns
                for (int j = 0; j < locatedRange.getColumnCount(); j++) {
    
                    // Get a specific cell
                    CellRange certainCell = locatedRange.get(i + 1, j + 1);
    
                    // Get the value of the cell
                    String cellValue = certainCell.getValue();
    
                    // Print out result
                    System.out.print(cellValue + " ");
                }
                System.out.println();
            }
        }
    }

Read Formula in a Cell in Java

If a cell contains a formula, you can get the formula using either the getValue() method or the getFormula() method. Here are the steps to read formula of a cell in Java.

1. Create a Workbook object.
2. Load an Excel file into the Workbook object.
3. Get a specific worksheet from the Workbook object.
4. Get a specific cell (D4 in this case) from the worksheet.
5. Check if the cell has a formula using the hasFormula() method.
6. If the cell has a formula, retrieve the formula using the getFormula() method.

import com.spire.xls.CellRange;
    import com.spire.xls.Workbook;
    import com.spire.xls.Worksheet;
    
    public class ReadFormula {
    
        public static void main(String[] args) {
    
            // Create a Workbook object
            Workbook wb = new Workbook();
    
            // Load an Excel file
            wb.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Formula.xlsx");
    
            //Get a specific worksheet
            Worksheet sheet = wb.getWorksheets().get(0);
    
            // Get a specific cell
            CellRange certainCell = sheet.getCellRange("D4");
    
            // Determine if the cell has formula or not
            if (certainCell.hasFormula()){
    
                // Get the formula of the cell
                String formula = certainCell.getFormula();
    
                // Print out result
                System.out.println("D4 has a formula: " + formula);
            }
        }
    }

Read Formula Result in a Cell in Java

In many cases, users are primarily interested in the results produced by formulas rather than the actual formulas themselves. To obtain the result of a formula, use the getFormulaValue() method. The following are the steps to read formula result in a cell in Java.

1. Create a Workbook object.
2. Load an Excel file into the Workbook object.
3. Get a specific worksheet from the Workbook object.
4. Get a specific cell (D4 in this case) from the worksheet.
5. Check if the cell has a formula using the hasFormula() method.
6. If the cell has a formula, retrieve the result of the formula using the getFormulaValue() method and convert the result to a string representation using the toString() method.

import com.spire.xls.CellRange;
    import com.spire.xls.Workbook;
    import com.spire.xls.Worksheet;
    
    public class ReadFormulaResult {
    
        public static void main(String[] args) {
    
            // Create a Workbook object
            Workbook wb = new Workbook();
    
            // Load an Excel file
            wb.loadFromFile("C:\\Users\\Administrator\\Desktop\\Formula.xlsx");
    
            //Get a specific worksheet
            Worksheet sheet = wb.getWorksheets().get(0);
    
            // Get a specific cell
            CellRange certainCell = sheet.getCellRange("D4");
    
            // Determine if the cell has formula or not
            if (certainCell.hasFormula()){
    
                // Get the result of formula
                String formulaResult = certainCell.getFormulaValue().toString();
    
                // Print out result
                System.out.println("D4 has a formula and its result is: " + formulaResult);
            }
        }
    }

Conclusion

In this blog post, we have explained the process of retrieving data (text and numbers) from a specific cell, a designated cell range, or an entire Excel worksheet using Free Spire.XLS for Java. Also, we’ve discussed how to determine if a cell contains a formula, and explored methods to extract both the formula itself and its resulting value. As a professional Excel library, Free Spire.XLS for Java supports the extraction of images and OLE objects from Excel documents as well.

For more tutorials, please check out our Excel programming guide. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us via the Spire.XLS forum.

• Create, Read or Update Excel Files in Java
• Convert Excel to PDF in Java
• Create Pivot Tables in Excel in Java
• Print Excel XLS and XLSX Files in Java