Legacy and Modern Excel connectors

Clara
Clara Altair Community Member
edited October 2021 in Community Q&A
​Hello,

can anyone explain the difference between the Legacy and Modern Excel connectors?  I searched for documentation but can't find any so far.

------------------------------
Clara
Business Analyst
IL
------------------------------
Tagged:

Best Answer

  • Ermela
    Ermela
    Altair Employee
    edited October 2021 Answer ✓
    Hi Clara,

    The short answer to your question is that Legacy Excel connector uses OLEDB to open Excel files while Modern uses Aspose engine.  The main difference between these two engines is performance and memory usage when working with large Excel files.  The Modern engine uses less memory and performs better than the Legacy engine.  Also, the Modern engine can open Excel files with more than 255 columns.

    HTH

    ------------------------------
    Mela Sarenas
    Manager, QA
    Altair formely Datawatch
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
    Original Message:
    Sent: 03-20-2019 10:04 AM
    From: Clara Bonaccorsi
    Subject: Legacy and Modern Excel connectors

    Hello,

    can anyone explain the difference between the Legacy and Modern Excel connectors?  I searched for documentation but can't find any so far.

    ------------------------------
    Clara
    Business Analyst
    IL
    ------------------------------
    "

Answers

  • Ermela
    Ermela
    Altair Employee
    edited October 2021 Answer ✓
    Hi Clara,

    The short answer to your question is that Legacy Excel connector uses OLEDB to open Excel files while Modern uses Aspose engine.  The main difference between these two engines is performance and memory usage when working with large Excel files.  The Modern engine uses less memory and performs better than the Legacy engine.  Also, the Modern engine can open Excel files with more than 255 columns.

    HTH

    ------------------------------
    Mela Sarenas
    Manager, QA
    Altair formely Datawatch
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
    Original Message:
    Sent: 03-20-2019 10:04 AM
    From: Clara Bonaccorsi
    Subject: Legacy and Modern Excel connectors

    Hello,

    can anyone explain the difference between the Legacy and Modern Excel connectors?  I searched for documentation but can't find any so far.

    ------------------------------
    Clara
    Business Analyst
    IL
    ------------------------------
    "
  • Clara
    Clara Altair Community Member
    edited March 2019
    Ermela said:

    Hi Clara,

    The short answer to your question is that Legacy Excel connector uses OLEDB to open Excel files while Modern uses Aspose engine.  The main difference between these two engines is performance and memory usage when working with large Excel files.  The Modern engine uses less memory and performs better than the Legacy engine.  Also, the Modern engine can open Excel files with more than 255 columns.

    HTH

    ------------------------------
    Mela Sarenas
    Manager, QA
    Altair formely Datawatch
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
    Original Message:
    Sent: 03-20-2019 10:04 AM
    From: Clara Bonaccorsi
    Subject: Legacy and Modern Excel connectors

    Hello,

    can anyone explain the difference between the Legacy and Modern Excel connectors?  I searched for documentation but can't find any so far.

    ------------------------------
    Clara
    Business Analyst
    IL
    ------------------------------
    "

    That's great!  If possible I would like to hear about some of the other differences.  So far I've found the modern version may not behave the same way as the legacy version in terms of applying formats to sources and exports as well.  Am I correct about this?  I say this in a hopeful manner, I like what I'm seeing.

     

     



    ------Original Message------

    Hi Clara,

    The short answer to your question is that Legacy Excel connector uses OLEDB to open Excel files while Modern uses Aspose engine.  The main difference between these two engines is performance and memory usage when working with large Excel files.  The Modern engine uses less memory and performs better than the Legacy engine.  Also, the Modern engine can open Excel files with more than 255 columns.

    HTH

    ------------------------------
    Mela Sarenas
    Manager, QA
    Altair formely Datawatch
    ------------------------------
    "
  • Ermela
    Ermela
    Altair Employee
    edited March 2019
    Clara said:

    That's great!  If possible I would like to hear about some of the other differences.  So far I've found the modern version may not behave the same way as the legacy version in terms of applying formats to sources and exports as well.  Am I correct about this?  I say this in a hopeful manner, I like what I'm seeing.

     

     



    ------Original Message------

    Hi Clara,

    The short answer to your question is that Legacy Excel connector uses OLEDB to open Excel files while Modern uses Aspose engine.  The main difference between these two engines is performance and memory usage when working with large Excel files.  The Modern engine uses less memory and performs better than the Legacy engine.  Also, the Modern engine can open Excel files with more than 255 columns.

    HTH

    ------------------------------
    Mela Sarenas
    Manager, QA
    Altair formely Datawatch
    ------------------------------
    "
    Oh the Modern and Legacy Excel engines are for bringing in Excel files.  In addition to performance and bringing in 255 columns using the Modern engine, older versions of Excel (Excel 95 .xls) can only be opened using Legacy.  Modern engine supports Excel .xls if it is in 97-2003 workbook format.

    As for applying formats and exporting, the Excel engines does not apply.  If you see problems in formatting and exporting to Excel, we would like to know it.

    Thanks.

    ------------------------------
    Mela Sarenas
    Software Quality Manager
    Datawatch Corporation
    Bedford MA
    + 1.800.445.3311
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
    Original Message:
    Sent: 03-21-2019 10:56 AM
    From: Clara Bonaccorsi
    Subject: Legacy and Modern Excel connectors

    That's great!  If possible I would like to hear about some of the other differences.  So far I've found the modern version may not behave the same way as the legacy version in terms of applying formats to sources and exports as well.  Am I correct about this?  I say this in a hopeful manner, I like what I'm seeing.

     

     




    Original Message------

    Hi Clara,

    The short answer to your question is that Legacy Excel connector uses OLEDB to open Excel files while Modern uses Aspose engine.  The main difference between these two engines is performance and memory usage when working with large Excel files.  The Modern engine uses less memory and performs better than the Legacy engine.  Also, the Modern engine can open Excel files with more than 255 columns.

    HTH

    ------------------------------
    Mela Sarenas
    Manager, QA
    Altair formely Datawatch
    ------------------------------
    "
  • Al_22614
    Al_22614 Altair Community Member
    edited October 2021

    Hello:

     

    Is Modern also best used with large .csv files?

    Thanks in advance for reply.

    Al

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