I want to get a reference to a running instance of excel
currently i'm using _xlApp = new Excel.Application();
but obviously that's not what i want

found two answers so far
1 add a reference to the .NET Component "Microsoft.VisualBasic".
and use Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction.GetObject()
but that sounded nasty...so i keep searching...

2 System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject

that sounds better(no vb) so i tried
....
at top of class
private Excel.Application _xlApp;
....
then in method i tried:
_xlApp
=System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
and got this error:
//Cannot implicitly convert type 'object' to 'Excel.Application'.
//An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)
so i tried
_xlApp
=(Excel.Application)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
and got the same error

I thought (typeToCastTo)objectToCast was the way to cast in c#????

what's the solution?
thanks
mark

"mp" <(E-Mail Removed)> wrote in message
news:igqsgv$uin$(E-Mail Removed)...
>I want to get a reference to a running instance of excel
[]
type 'object' to 'Excel.Application'.
> //An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)
> so i tried
> _xlApp
> =(Excel.Application)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
> and got the same error

how about that
_xlApp =
(Excel.Application)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel");
seems to work...at least it got rid of the compile error...haven't tested
yet
thanks anyway
mark

On 14-01-2011 20:16, mp wrote:
> I want to get a reference to a running instance of excel
> currently i'm using _xlApp = new Excel.Application();
> but obviously that's not what i want
>
> found two answers so far
> 1 add a reference to the .NET Component "Microsoft.VisualBasic".
> and use Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction.GetObject()
> but that sounded nasty...so i keep searching...
>
> 2 System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject
>
> that sounds better(no vb) so i tried
> ...
> at top of class
> private Excel.Application _xlApp;
> ...
> then in method i tried:
> _xlApp
> =System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
> and got this error:
> //Cannot implicitly convert type 'object' to 'Excel.Application'.
> //An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)
> so i tried
> _xlApp
> =(Excel.Application)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
> and got the same error
>
> I thought (typeToCastTo)objectToCast was the way to cast in c#????

It is, but the compiler will complain if it is a "side" cast.

_xlApp =
(Excel.Application)(object)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");

will compile.

But will most likely fail at runtime.

Arne

On 14-01-2011 20:21, Arne Vajhøj wrote:
> On 14-01-2011 20:16, mp wrote:
>> I want to get a reference to a running instance of excel
>> currently i'm using _xlApp = new Excel.Application();
>> but obviously that's not what i want
>>
>> found two answers so far
>> 1 add a reference to the .NET Component "Microsoft.VisualBasic".
>> and use Microsoft.VisualBasic.Interaction.GetObject()
>> but that sounded nasty...so i keep searching...
>>
>> 2 System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject
>>
>> that sounds better(no vb) so i tried
>> ...
>> at top of class
>> private Excel.Application _xlApp;
>> ...
>> then in method i tried:
>> _xlApp
>> =System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
>>
>> and got this error:
>> //Cannot implicitly convert type 'object' to 'Excel.Application'.
>> //An explicit conversion exists (are you missing a cast?)
>> so i tried
>> _xlApp
>> =(Excel.Application)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
>>
>> and got the same error
>>
>> I thought (typeToCastTo)objectToCast was the way to cast in c#????
>
> It is, but the compiler will complain if it is a "side" cast.
>
> _xlApp =
> (Excel.Application)(object)System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.GetActiveObject("Excel.Application");
>
> will compile.
>
> But will most likely fail at runtime.

Wrong analysis.

It seems already to be an object. So that will not make a difference.

Then the problem probably relates to the fact that this is COM stuff.

Arne