Reading date columns from excel ]-CodePudding

I am trying to read date cell from excel file, Here's the code

private string GetDateValueFromRowOrNull(ISheet worksheet, int row, int column, StringBuilder exceptionMessage, CellType? cellType = null)
    {
        var cell = worksheet.GetRow(row).GetCell(column);
        if (cell == null)
        {
            return string.Empty;
        }

        if (cellType != null)
        {
            cell.SetCellType(cellType.Value);
        }

        var cellValue = worksheet.GetRow(row).GetCell(column).DateCellValue;

        if (cellValue != null)
        {
            return cellValue;
        }

        return String.Empty;
    }

But I am getting an Error while trying to return the cellValue: Can not implicitly convert type System.DateTime to string

if (cellValue != null)
    {
        return cellValue;
    }

Can someone help me out?, By the way it's an apnetzero mvc Solution and i am using npoi for the excel functions

CodePudding user response：

You can read the datetime value as string from excel then convert it to a DateTime object.

Sample converter code:

public static DateTime GetDateTime(string day, string month, string year)
{
    try
    {
        return Convert.ToDateTime(string.Format("{0} {1}, {2}", (object)day, (object)month, (object)year));
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        throw ex;
    }
}

CodePudding user response：

Sorry i have sorted it put apparently @Fredy was right

var cellValue = worksheet.GetRow(row).GetCell(column).DateCellValue;

    if (cellValue != null)
    {
        return cellValue.ToString();
    }

CodePudding user response：

If you require a DateTime to be returned from your method you need to change the method signature to return DateTime instead of string. Given the possibility of a null value, I also suggest you actually return a nullable date and make sure callers of this method handle nulls the same way you were expecting them to handle empty string:

private DateTime? GetDateValueFromRowOrNull(ISheet worksheet, int row, int column, StringBuilder exceptionMessage, CellType? cellType = null)
{
    var cell = worksheet.GetRow(row).GetCell(column);
    if (cell == null)
    {
        return null;
    }

    if (cellType != null)
    {
        cell.SetCellType(cellType.Value);
    }

    var cellValue = worksheet.GetRow(row).GetCell(column).DateCellValue;

    if (cellValue != null)
    {
        return cellValue;
    }

    return null;
}