Spreadsheet Comparison in WPF Spreadsheet
14 Aug 20262 minutes to read
SfSpreadsheet is the recommended choice for new development and for migrating from the legacy Spreadsheet (Classic) control. It delivers improved scrolling performance, broader formula support, workbook-level undo/redo, and richer formatting and validation features.
Feature comparison
WPF suite contains SfSpreadsheet and Spreadsheet (Classic) controls for viewing and editing Excel files. SfSpreadsheet is the recommended replacement for the legacy Spreadsheet (Classic) control. Hence, it is recommended to use SfSpreadsheet, which provides better performance and a rich set of features over the Spreadsheet (Classic) control.
Below are the features that SfSpreadsheet has over the Spreadsheet (Classic) control:
| Feature | SfSpreadsheet |
|---|---|
| Scrolling performance | Supports fast and fluid scrolling even if the Excel file has a huge set of data. Thus, its performance is higher than that of the Spreadsheet (Classic) control. |
| Copy Paste | Supports various paste options similar to Excel options, such as Paste, Formulas, Values, Formula and Source Formatting, Values and Source Formatting, and Formatting alone. It also provides better performance compared to the Spreadsheet (Classic) control. |
| Undo/Redo | Supports undo/redo functionalities similar to those achieved with Microsoft Office-type applications. This operation records the changes in the whole workbook, while the Spreadsheet (Classic) control records the changes at the sheet level only. |
| Formula calculation | Provides support for 400+ of the most widely used formulas and uses a multi-threading concept, so the calculation speed is also high compared to the Spreadsheet (Classic) control. |
| Floating Cells | Provides support to float a cell in both display and edit modes. |
| Hyperlinks | Provides support for the Hyperlink feature, letting you create hyperlinks to existing files, web pages, or email addresses. |
| Conditional Formatting | Provides support to define and import conditional formatting rules, such as Data Bars, Icon Sets, and Color Scales, which are used to visualize the data. |
| Data validation | Provides support for cross-sheet reference validation and list validation with formula/cell references compared to the Spreadsheet (Classic) control. |
API mapping
Below are the property differences between SfSpreadsheet and the Spreadsheet (Classic) control:
| SfSpreadsheet | Spreadsheet (Classic) | Description |
|---|---|---|
| GridProperties->ActiveSpreadsheetGrid | Gets the active SpreadsheetGrid | |
| TabStyleManager -> IsCustomTabItemContextMenuEnabled | Gets or sets whether the custom ContextMenu is enabled | |
| TabStyleManager -> ShowTabItemContextMenu | Gets or sets whether the TabItemContextMenu is displayed | |
| TabStyleManager ->TabItemContextMenu | Gets or sets the ContextMenu items for the TabItem | |
| ExcelProperties->Workbook->ActiveSheet | Gets the current ActiveSheet | |
| ExcelProperties->Workbook | Gets the underlying Workbook instance | |
| GridProperties->CurrentCellStyle | Gets the style of the current cell | |
| GridProperties.ActiveSpreadsheetGrid.Model.CommandStack | Gets the command stack of the SfSpreadsheet. Undo/redo is enabled by default. | |
| GridProperties->CurrentSheetName | Gets the name of the active sheet tab |
See the WPF Spreadsheet feature tour page for a visual overview, and explore the WPF Spreadsheet samples for runnable examples of rendering and configuring the control.