catch (Exception ex)

| Alternative | Pros | Cons | |-------------|------|------| | (by Microsoft) | No Excel installation required, fast, reliable | Cannot execute macros or formulas, no real-time rendering | | EPPlus (commercial for non-open use) | High performance, formula support | License cost for commercial use (v5+) | | ClosedXML | Open source, simpler API than Open XML | Limited to basic features, slower for huge files | | NPOI | Free, supports .xls and .xlsx | Less documentation, occasional bugs | | Excel Data Reader | Fast read-only access | No write support |

This assembly acts as a managed wrapper around Excel’s unmanaged COM interfaces, enabling developers to create, read, modify, and automate Excel workbooks programmatically without directly dealing with COM pointers, VARIANT types, or memory management complexities.

// Release COM objects properly if (worksheet != null) System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(worksheet); if (workbook != null) System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(workbook); if (excelApp != null) System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(excelApp);

// Save file string savePath = @"C:\Reports\SalesReport.xlsx"; workbook.SaveAs(savePath, Excel.XlFileFormat.xlOpenXMLWorkbook);

try

// Initialize Excel application excelApp = new Excel.Application(); excelApp.Visible = false; // Run in background excelApp.DisplayAlerts = false;