title: Is it possible to extract information from an excel file into c# on a computer without excel installed?
body: <p>Is it possible to extract information from an excel file (.xls) into c# on a computer <strong>without excel</strong>  installed?</p>
  
  <p>I've got the following code: </p>
  
  <pre><code>     OleDbConnection objConn = new 
            OleDbConnection(CONNECTION_STRING.Replace("&lt;FILENAME&gt;", fileName));
  
              try
              {
                  objConnection.Open(); 
              }
              catch (Exception)
              {}
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>It throws an IndexOutOfRangeException ("Cannot find table 0") when I try to open the OleDbConnection when run on a computer that does not have excel installed. The same code run on a computer with excel works just fine. I therefore very strongly suspect the lack of excel to be the culprit. </p>
  
  <p>Is this the problem?
  If this is, how can I extract data from the file?</p>