title: how to read excel files by (column, row) with npoi and VISUAL BASIC
body: <p>I'd like to be able to ready an excel file by column index, row by row, in VB .NET.</p>
  
  <p>I can do it extremely easily with python XLRD, and with vb6 via "ADOX.Catalog"</p>
  
  <p>Basically, this should be enough for my needs:</p>
  
  <pre><code>wb = open(excelfile)
  ws = wb.worksheet(0)
  cell = ws.get_cell(col, row)
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>How can I do that?</p>
  
  <ol>
  <li>Is there a way to get the columns of a worksheet?</li>
  <li>I haven't found any documentation of NPOI</li>
  <li>I haven't found any *.vb file samples in the NPOI downloads (alpha, beta and stable versions)</li>
  <li>is there a unified excel file opener that will detect the file version and pick up the correct opener class, or do i have to do it by file extension?</li>
  <li>subjective question: am I the only one who think this API is overly complex?</li>
  </ol>
  
  <p><strong>IMPORTANT EDIT:  I CAN'T INSTALL EXCEL ON THE MACHINE, so i'm looking for non-excel solutions</strong></p>
  
  <p>ps. i'm new to .net</p>