What options do I have for reading Excel files and evaluating formulas in C#, Java and PHP?

Question

I've seen various means of reading (and writing) Excel spreadsheets. For example:

• In .Net as an ADO.Net source (as per Reading Excel files from C#);
• In Java with either JExcelAPI ("jxl") or Apache POI;
• In PHP with the Excel Spreadsheet Writer (as per Format text in Excel file via PHP and PHP:Writing to excel file using PEAR).

But I'm interested in more than just reading/writing Excel files. I want something where I can evaluate arbitrary Excel formulas. So far in this vein I've seen:

• C# Excel Interop, although this seems to require that you have Excel running; and
• POI-HSSF: this formula support seems incomplete.

Are there better options or is that it?

Answer 1

SpreadsheetGear for .NET is compatible enough with Excel that Microsoft uses it to calculate Excel based calculators on their MSN Money web site.