Excel Export Specifications and Limits

• Apr 12, 2019
• 3 minutes to read

The Excel Export Library provides unified classes and interfaces used for exporting data to the most popular spreadsheet formats (XLSX, XLS and CVS). But be aware that the content of the resulting document highly depends on the output file format. For example, XLSX format supports all the features provided by the Excel Export Library, while the CSV file format keeps only cell values by saving them as text and does not support formatting, pictures, hyperlinks and other important features. That is why you should always be sure that you use the appropriate file format to export your data to avoid loss of important information and format settings.

Tip

To verify whether the certain functionality is supported by the file format to which you export your document, use properties of the IXlDocumentOptions object accessible using the IXlDocument.Options property.

The table below lists feature and formatting differences between the XLSX, XLS and CSV file formats.

Feature	XLSX	XLS	CSV
Maximum number of rows	1,048,576	65,536	2,147,483,6471
Maximum number of columns	16,384	256	2,147,483,647‬1
Multi-part workbooks ** **(with several worksheets)
Columns
Width
Formatting options			Takes into account only number format settings.2
Visibility state
Rows
Width
Formatting options			Takes into account only number format settings.2
Visibility state
Cell Values			Cell values are exported as text.
Cell formatting
Font
Fill
Alignment
Borders
Number format			2
Merged cells
Formulas
Conditional formatting		3
Pictures
Sparklines
Hyperlinks
Filtering
Grouping/Outline
Data Validation
Frozen panes
Page breaks/Page setup
Print area/options/titles
Headers/Footers
Encryption
Error checking options
Document properties

¹ Note that Microsoft® Excel® and other spreadsheet applications allow you to import only 1,048,576 rows and 16,384 columns, so that you will be unable to view or edit your remaining data and this data may be lost if you try to save the modified workbook.

² The specified number format settings will be used to convert a cell value into a string during export when the CsvDataAwareExporterOptions.UseCellNumberFormat property is true (the default value). But note that when you open a CSV file in Microsoft® Excel® or any other spreadsheet application, each data column in the loaded file will be interpreted and formatted according to the default data format settings specified in the application.

³ Limited support: you cannot apply more than three conditional formats to a range of cells. Some conditional formatting types are not fully supported. For example, you cannot specify a data bar rule that uses a solid fill, border or bar direction settings, or contains negative bars. An icon set conditional formatting rule that uses an unsupported icon set arrangement (3 Triangles, 3 Stars, 5 Boxes, or custom icon set) will not be saved.