Getting started (Delphi)

Note

This demo is available in your FlexCel installation at <FlexCel Install Folder>\Demo\Delphi\Modules\10.API\10.GettingStarted and also at https://github.com/tmssoftware/TMS-FlexCel.VCL-demos/tree/master/Delphi/Modules/10.API/10.GettingStarted

Overview

A simple demo showing how to create an Excel file with the API from scratch.

Concepts

Before using FlexCel, you have to add "uses FlexCel.VCLSupport", "uses FlexCel.Core" and "uses FlexCel.XlsAdapter" to your uses statements. For a FireMonkey app, you would add "uses FlexCel.FMXSupport" instead of "uses FlexCel.VCLSupport" You need to use FMXSupport/VCLSupport units once in your app, so FlexCel can initialize the correct graphics engine. There is no need to add them more than once.
The most important class here is the TXlsFile class, from where you can read and write to any Excel 2 or newer file.
To set the value for a cell, use TXlsFile.SetCellValue. You can set any kind of object here, not just text. If you set it to a TFormula object, you will enter a formula.
As explained in the FlexCel API Developer Guide, formats in Excel are indexes to an XF (eXtended Format list) To modify the format on a cell, you have to assign an XF index to that cell. To create new XF formats, use TXlsFile.AddFormat

Files

UGettingStarted.pas

unit UGettingStarted;

interface

uses
  Windows, Messages, SysUtils, Variants, Classes, Graphics, Controls, Forms,
  Dialogs, StdCtrls, ShellAPI, UPaths,
  {$IFDEF FPC} LResources,{$ENDIF}
  {$if CompilerVersion >= 23.0} System.UITypes, {$IFEND}
  FlexCel.VCLSupport, FlexCel.Core, FlexCel.XlsAdapter;

type
  TFGettingStarted = class(TForm)
    btnCreateFile: TButton;
    Memo1: TMemo;
    SaveDialog: TSaveDialog;
    procedure btnCreateFileClick(Sender: TObject);
  private
    procedure CreateFile;
    procedure AddData(const Xls: TExcelFile);
    procedure ShowOpenDialog(const Xls: TExcelFile);
  end;

var
  FGettingStarted: TFGettingStarted;

implementation

{$IFNDEF FPC}
{$R *.dfm}
{$ENDIF}

procedure TFGettingStarted.CreateFile;
var
  Xls: TExcelFile;
begin
  Xls := TXlsFile.Create(true);
  try
    AddData(Xls);
    ShowOpenDialog(Xls);
  finally
    FreeAndNil(Xls);
  end;
end;

procedure TFGettingStarted.AddData(const Xls: TExcelFile);
var
  PathToImage : string;
  fmt: TFlxFormat;
  XF, XF2: integer;
begin
	//Create a new file. We could also open an existing file with Xls.Open
	Xls.NewFile(1, TExcelFileFormat.v2019);

  //Set some cell values.
  Xls.SetCellValue(1, 1, 'Hello to the world');
  Xls.SetCellValue(2, 1, 3);
  Xls.SetCellValue(3, 1, 2.1);
  Xls.SetCellValue(4, 1, TFormula.Create('=Sum(A2, A3)')); //Note that formulas always are in English. This means use "," to separate arguments, not ";".

	//Get path for images from disk.
  PathToImage := DataFolder  + 'poweredbyflexcel.png';

  //Add a new image on cell F2
  Xls.AddImage(PathToImage,
    TImageProperties_Create(
    TClientAnchor.Create(TFlxAnchorType.MoveAndResize, 2, 0, 6, 0, 5, 0, 8, 0),
    PathToImage, 'My image'));

	//Add a comment on cell a2
	Xls.SetComment(2, 1, 'This is a comment');

	//Custom Format cells a2 and a3
  fmt := Xls.GetDefaultFormat;  //Always initialize the record with an existing format.
  fmt.Font.Name := 'Times New Roman';
  fmt.Font.Color := clRed;
  fmt.FillPattern.Pattern := TFlxPatternStyle.LightDown;
  fmt.FillPattern.FgColor := clBlue;
  fmt.FillPattern.BgColor := clWhite;

	//You can call AddFormat as many times as you want, it will never add a format twice.
	//But if you know the format you are going to use, you can get some extra CPU cycles by
	//calling addformat once and saving the result into a variable.
	XF := Xls.AddFormat(fmt);

  Xls.SetCellFormat(2, 1, XF);
  Xls.SetCellFormat(3, 1, XF);

	fmt.Rotation := 45;
  fmt.Font.Size20 := 400;
  fmt.FillPattern.Pattern := TFlxPatternStyle.Solid;
  XF2 := Xls.AddFormat(fmt);

	//Apply a custom format to all the row.
	Xls.SetRowFormat(1, XF2);

  //Merge cells
	Xls.MergeCells(5, 1, 10, 6);
	//Note how this one merges with the previous range, creating a final range (5,1,15,6)
	Xls.MergeCells(10, 6, 15, 6);


	//Make the page print in landscape or portrait mode
	Xls.PrintLandscape := true;
end;

procedure TFGettingStarted.btnCreateFileClick(Sender: TObject);
begin
  CreateFile;
end;


procedure TFGettingStarted.ShowOpenDialog(const Xls: TExcelFile);
begin
  if not SaveDialog.Execute then exit;
  Xls.Save(SaveDialog.FileName); //No need to delete the file first, since AllowOverWriteFiles is true in XlsAdapter.

  if MessageDlg('Do you want to open the generated file?', mtConfirmation, [mbYes, mbNo], 0) = mrYes then
  begin
    ShellExecute(0, 'open', PCHAR(SaveDialog.FileName), nil, nil, SW_SHOWNORMAL);
  end;
end;

{$IFDEF FPC}
initialization
{$I UGettingStarted.lrs}
{$ENDIF}
end.

Table of Contents

Getting started (Delphi)

Note

Overview

Concepts

Files

UGettingStarted.pas