New to Telerik Document Processing? Start a free 30-day trial

Cells

Updated on Jun 22, 2026

A cell is the basic data unit in a worksheet. The following sections describe how to export and import cells using RadSpreadStreamProcessing.

What Is a Cell

A cell is the basic data unit in a worksheet. Cells are organized in rows and columns and can also be referred to as an intersection point of a column and a row. Cells are identified by a letter and number combination that indicates the letter of their column and the number of their row. For example, the top left cell is referred to as A1 and the bottom right cell is XFD1048576.

ICellExporter and ICellImporter Interface

In RadSpreadStreamProcessing, a cell can be exported through the ICellExporter interface. It defines several methods that allow you to set different values and formats to a cell.

If you need to read the cell data and its properties, use the ICellImporter interface.

Using ICellExporter

You can create a concrete instance of ICellExporter through the CreateCellExporter() method of IRowExporter. Example 1 demonstrates how to add a cell to a row.

Example 1: Using ICellExporter

using (ICellExporter cell = row.CreateCellExporter())
{
}

ICellExporter inherits from IDisposable. Ensure the object is disposed when you are done with it. Otherwise, the content will not be written in the exported file. The best way to ensure this is handled properly is to wrap it in a using statement.

Set a Value

With ICellExporter you can set different values to a cell and modify its format.

The SetValue() method exposes several overloads that allow you to set values from the following types:

string
double
bool
DateTime

To visualize a value as a date or time, you need to set an appropriate number format of the cell. Otherwise, it is treated as a number.

Example 2: Setting a Value to a Cell

using (ICellExporter cell = row.CreateCellExporter())
{
	cell.SetValue(123.456);
}

Set a Formula

To allow you to set a formula as a value of a cell, ICellExporter defines the SetFormula() method. This method accepts a string that represents the formula as a parameter. Example 3 shows how to use it.

Example 3: Setting a Formula to a Cell

using (ICellExporter cell = row.CreateCellExporter())
{
	cell.SetFormula("=Sum(A1, B2)");
}

All formulas must be set in InvariantCulture. For example, the decimal separator must be ".", and the list separator must be ",".

Set a Formula with a Cached Value

An overload of SetFormula accepts a second cachedValue string argument. The cached value is the pre-computed result of the formula and is used by RadSpreadStreamProcessing for filter evaluation when you export an AutoFilter with automatic row hiding (see AutoFilter). Providing a cached value lets the library evaluate whether a row matches the filter rules without recalculating formulas.

Example 4: Setting a Formula with a Cached Value

csharp

using (ICellExporter cellExporter = rowExporter.CreateCellExporter())
{
    // Store the formula and its pre-computed result so that the AutoFilter
    // can evaluate whether this row matches the filter criteria.
    cellExporter.SetFormula("SUM(B2:B10)", "12500");
}

The cachedValue argument must not contain XML 1.0 illegal control characters (U+0000–U+0008, U+000B, U+000C, U+000E–U+001F). Passing a value with such characters throws an ArgumentException.

Skip Cells

The cells in a document are exported one by one from left to right starting from the one with index [0, 0] or, in other words, A1. To export a cell with a bigger index, you need to export all the previous cells or skip them.

In some cases you may need to skip several cells and start filling the data in the next one. The IRowExporter interface declares a method that allows you to implement such a scenario. Example 5 shows how to skip 5 cells and set a value and a vertical alignment to the sixth one.

Example 5: Skip Cells

row.SkipCells(5);
using (ICellExporter cell = row.CreateCellExporter())
{
	cell.SetValue("Aligned cell");
	cell.SetFormat(new SpreadCellFormat()
	{
		VerticalAlignment = SpreadVerticalAlignment.Center
	});
}

Merge Cells

Example 6 shows how to merge several cells into a single one through IWorksheetExporter.

Example 6: Merge Cells

using (IWorksheetExporter worksheet = workbook.CreateWorksheetExporter("Sheet 1"))
			{
				worksheet.MergeCells(3, 3, 10, 10);
			}

Due to the importance of the order the content is inserted in a document, the Merge operation must be the last operation before disposing IWorksheetExporter.

The merged cell range has the formatting and value of the top left cell of the range.

Set a Format

Another method exposed by ICellExporter—SetFormat()—enables you to change the appearance of a cell. The SetFormat() method accepts an argument of type SpreadCellFormat. The following table describes the properties exposed by SpreadCellFormat:

Property	Description
`NumberFormat`	Gets or sets the number format.
`HorizontalAlignment`	Gets or sets the horizontal alignment. Of type `SpreadHorizontalAlignment`.
`VerticalAlignment`	Gets or sets the vertical alignment. Of type `SpreadVerticalAlignment`.
`Indent`	Gets or sets the indent.
`WrapText`	Gets or sets a value indicating whether the text in a cell is line-wrapped within the cell.
`ForeColor`	Gets or sets the fore color. Of type `SpreadThemableColor`.
`FontFamily`	Gets or sets the font family. Of type `SpreadThemableFontFamily`.
`FontSize`	Gets or sets the size of the font.
`IsBold`	Gets or sets a value indicating whether the text is bold.
`IsItalic`	Gets or sets a value indicating whether the text is italic.
`Underline`	Gets or sets the underline type. Of type `SpreadUnderlineType`.
`LeftBorder`	Gets or sets the left border. Of type `SpreadBorder`.
`RightBorder`	Gets or sets the right border. Of type `SpreadBorder`.
`TopBorder`	Gets or sets the top border. Of type `SpreadBorder`.
`BottomBorder`	Gets or sets the bottom border. Of type `SpreadBorder`.
`DiagonalUpBorder`	Gets or sets the diagonal up border. Of type `SpreadBorder`.
`DiagonalDownBorder`	Gets or sets the diagonal down border. Of type `SpreadBorder`.

Example 7: Format Cells

SpreadBorder border = new SpreadBorder(SpreadBorderStyle.Thick, new SpreadThemableColor(new SpreadColor(255, 0, 0)));

			SpreadCellFormat cellFormat = new SpreadCellFormat()
			{
				TopBorder = border,
				BottomBorder = border,
				DiagonalDownBorder = border,
				DiagonalUpBorder = border,
				LeftBorder = border,
				RightBorder = border,
				Fill = SpreadPatternFill.CreateSolidFill(new SpreadColor(255, 0, 0)),
				FontFamily = new SpreadThemableFontFamily(SpreadThemeFontType.Major),
				FontSize = 22,
				ForeColor = new SpreadThemableColor(new SpreadColor(0, 255, 0)),
				Underline = SpreadUnderlineType.DoubleAccounting,
				IsBold = true,
				IsItalic = true,
				HorizontalAlignment = SpreadHorizontalAlignment.Fill,
				Indent = 5,
				VerticalAlignment = SpreadVerticalAlignment.Top,
				WrapText = false
			};

			cell.SetFormat(cellFormat);

In addition to the listed properties, the SpreadCellFormat class allows you to set a style to a cell. For more information on cell styles, see the Cell Styles topic.

Example 8: Set the Value Format to String, Date, or a Number

using (ICellExporter cell = row.CreateCellExporter())
			{
				SpreadCellFormat format = new SpreadCellFormat()
				{
					NumberFormat = "@",
					IsBold = true
				};
				cell.SetFormat(format);
				cell.SetValue("test");
			}

			using (ICellExporter cell = row.CreateCellExporter())
			{
				SpreadCellFormat format = new SpreadCellFormat()
				{
					NumberFormat = "dd/mm/yyyy",
					IsBold = true
				};
				cell.SetFormat(format);
				cell.SetValue(DateTime.Now.ToOADate());
			}

			using (ICellExporter cell = row.CreateCellExporter())
			{
				SpreadCellFormat format = new SpreadCellFormat()
				{
					NumberFormat = "#,##0.00",
					IsBold = true
				};
				cell.SetFormat(format);
				cell.SetValue(42370.12);
			}

You can apply a SpreadCellFormat instance on multiple cells. However, if a property of the format changes, the new settings apply to the cells formatted after the modification.

Read a Cell

Using ICellImporter

You can get a concrete instance of ICellImporter through the Cells collection of IRowImporter. Example 9 demonstrates how to read the cells of a row.

Example 9: Create ICellImporter

foreach (ICellImporter cell in rowImporter.Cells)
			{
				string value = cell.Value;

				SpreadCellFormat format = cell.Format;
				SpreadCellStyle style = cell.Format.CellStyle;
			}

The ICellImporter interface exposes the following properties:

Property	Description
`RowIndex`	Gets the index of the row the cell appears in.
`ColumnIndex`	Gets the index of the column the cell appears in.
`Format`	Gets the formatting applied to the cell. Of type `SpreadCellFormat`.
`Value`	A string property that allows you to get the value of the cell.
`ValueType`	Gets the value type of the cell. Of type `CellValueType`.