Add new worksheet to Excel Using PowerShell

Tagged: PowerShell

Problem#

In this blog post, we will show you how to add new worksheet to Excel using PowerShell.

As the context, our original worksheets will look as follows where there are four worksheets:

Using Excel Com Object#

After creating the object, we will open the Excel file to get workbook object we want to manipulate. Then, we will add new worksheet using Add method from Worksheets property.

By default, the new worksheet will be inserted at the first position.

try {
    # Open excel file
    $excel = New-Object -ComObject Excel.Application
    $workbook = $excel.Workbooks.Open("C:\Scripts\Test.xlsx")
    
    # Add new worksheet
    $newWorksheet = $workbook.Worksheets.Add()
    $newWorksheet.Name = "NewSheet"

    # Save excel file
    $workbook.Save()    
}
finally {
    # Close excel file
    $workbook.Close()

    $excel.Quit()
    [System.Runtime.Interopservices.Marshal]::ReleaseComObject($excel)    
}

We enclose the code above with try-finally block because we want to make sure it will release the resource after modifying Excel that is performed at finally block.

Using ImportExcel Module#

ImportExcel is an external module that is built based on EPPlus which is a very well-known library to work with Excel spreadsheets in .NET.

Before using ImportExcel module, we have to install it.

Install-Module -Name ImportExcel

And then following previous solution pattern, we have to create Excel object first before adding new worksheet to existing workbook using Add method from Worksheets property.

Different with Excel Com Object solution, with this module the new worksheet will be inserted at the last position.

try {
    # Import the module
    Import-Module ImportExcel

    # Open excel file
    $excel = Open-ExcelPackage -Path "C:\Scripts\Test.xlsx"

    # Add new worksheet
    $excel.Workbook.Worksheets.Add("NewSheet")
}
finally {
    # Close excel file
    Close-ExcelPackage $excel    
}

Similar to previous solution, we enclose the script with try-finally block to avoid memory leak.

Using PSExcel Module#

PSExcel is another module based on EPPlus library. You can find all the examples in github repository.

Before using this module, we have to install it.

Install-Module -Name PSExcel

In order to use the object, we must import the module first. Then, we create Excel object by specifying the path of our Excel file. This object will be used to add new worksheet to existing workbook using Add method from Worksheets property.

Using this module will also place the new worksheet at the last position because this module is also based on EPPlus.

try {
    # Import the module
    Import-Module PSExcel

    # Open excel file
    $excel = New-Excel -Path 'C:\Scripts\Test.xlsx'

    # Add new worksheet
    $excel.Workbook.Worksheets.Add("NewSheet")

    # Save excel file
    $excel | Save-Excel
}
finally {
    $excel | Close-Excel
}

We also enclose the script with try-finally block to avoid memory leak.

Conclusion#

To add new worksheet to Excel using PowerShell, we can use excel module/libraries to manipulate excel.

We can use Excel Com Object which is based on .NET Framework. We can also use PowerShell external modules like PSExcel and ImportExcel. ImportExcel is an excellent module which is based on EPPlus library, a popular C# libary for woking with Excel from .NET.

PSExcel is the alternative of ImportExcel module. PSExcel is also based on EPPlus but this module is no longer maintained as stated in its GitHub repository. If it doesn’t provide functionality that you need, you should contribute to the source code by yourself.

By default, Excel Com Object will put the new worksheet to the first position while the other two solutions, which are based on EPPlus, will put the new worksheet to the last position.