title: What is an alternative to ADO.NET, but elegant way in C# to read Excel files
body: <p>ADO.NET just fails miserably when it's used to read Excel files where a column contains mixed data types.  It appears that it tries to determine the data type of a column, and then assume the rest of the entire column is of the same data type.  Here are some backgrounds:</p>
  
  <p><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/2968111/how-to-prevent-ado-net-from-altering-double-values-when-it-reads-from-excel-files">How to prevent ADO.NET from altering double values when it reads from Excel files</a></p>
  
  <p><a href="http://blog.lab49.com/archives/196" rel="nofollow noreferrer">http://blog.lab49.com/archives/196</a></p>
  
  <p>What is an alternative approach that doesn't require automation, Excel to be co-installed, is simple (since the input excel file will only have one worksheet in each file).</p>