Office Automation not DDE is what you want to be looking at.

Without thinking thru all the details, you could do something like prompt for number of columns and create a Cursor to fit that format. Then read in the data from the sheet. You could prompt for the column names from the cursor, or ask if the first row is column heading, etc.

PF

>Hello:
>
>I have a client who wants to expand the capability of his application to allow clients to view the contents of an Excel spreadsheet within the app. The format of the spreadsheet will NOT be consistent. From there, they will be able to select a column somehow (clicking on the header?) and all the values will prime this batch search function that resides currently in the application.
>
>Being that each of the users use the application differently, it will be impossible to enforce some kind of a standard layout for the spreadsheet. I need to be able to handle it if there is a single Excel column or multiple.
>
>Can this be done somehow using an ActiveX control? Do I have to settle for DDE? Or do I break it to him gently that there is a pipe in his dreams?
>
>Thanks!
>
>J. Miller