Hide Excel Worksheets

8 Dec 20234 minutes to read

You can hide any type of sheet in a workbook so that, users cannot see that when opening the workbook, but, you must always leave at least one sheet visible.
A sheet can be visible, hidden, or very hidden.

  • A visible sheets tab appears in the bottom of the Excel window enabling users to click the tab for navigating to the sheet. By default, all new sheets are visible.
  • If a sheet is hidden, the sheets tab will only disappear. Formulas can still retrieve values stored on a hidden sheet. It just disappears from the user interface.
  • The difference between a hidden sheet and a very hidden sheet is, very hidden sheets do not appear in the unhide dialog box.

The following code shows how to hide Excel worksheets with Interop and XlsIO for .NET.

Interop

private void HideWorksheet()
{
  //Instantiate the application object
  var excelApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application();

  //Add a workbook
  Workbook workbook = excelApp.Workbooks.Add(System.Reflection.Missing.Value);

  //Add a worksheet to the workbook
  Worksheet newWorksheet = excelApp.Worksheets.Add(Missing.Value, Missing.Value, Missing.Value, Missing.Value);

  //Get the first sheet
  Worksheet worksheet = (Worksheet)workbook.Sheets["Sheet1"];

  //Hide the worksheet
  worksheet.Visible = XlSheetVisibility.xlSheetHidden;

  //Save the file
  workbook.SaveCopyAs("InteropOutput_HiddenWorksheet.xlsx");

  //Quit the application
  excelApp.Quit();
}
Private Sub HideWorksheet()
  'Instantiate the application object
  Dim excelApp = New Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application()

  'Add a workbook
  Dim workbook As Workbook = excelApp.Workbooks.Add(System.Reflection.Missing.Value)

  'Add a worksheet to the workbook
  Dim newWorksheet As Worksheet = excelApp.Worksheets.Add(Missing.Value, Missing.Value, Missing.Value, Missing.Value)

  'Get the first sheet
  Dim worksheet As Worksheet = workbook.Sheets("Sheet1")

  'Hide the worksheet
  worksheet.Visible = XlSheetVisibility.xlSheetHidden

  'Save the file
  workbook.SaveCopyAs("InteropOutput_HiddenWorksheet.xlsx")

  'Quit the application
  excelApp.Quit()
End Sub

XlsIO

private void HideWorksheet()
{
  using (ExcelEngine excelEngine = new ExcelEngine())
  {
    //Instantiate the application object
    IApplication application = excelEngine.Excel;

    //Create a workbook
    IWorkbook workbook = application.Workbooks.Create(1);

    //Add a worksheet to the workbook
    IWorksheet newWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets.Create();

    //Get the first sheet
    IWorksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

    //Hide the worksheet
    worksheet.Visibility = WorksheetVisibility.Hidden;

    //Save the workbook
    workbook.SaveAs("XlsIOOutput_HiddenWorksheet.xlsx");
  }
}
Private Sub HideWorksheet()
  Using excelEngine As ExcelEngine = New ExcelEngine()
    'Instantiate the application object
    Dim application As IApplication = excelEngine.Excel

    'Create a workbook
    Dim workbook As IWorkbook = application.Workbooks.Create(1)

    'Add a worksheet to the workbook
    Dim newWorksheet As IWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets.Create()

    'Get the first sheet
    Dim worksheet As IWorksheet = workbook.Worksheets(0)

    'Hide the worksheet
    worksheet.Visibility = WorksheetVisibility.Hidden

    'Save as Excel file
    workbook.SaveAs("XlsIOOutput_HiddenWorksheet.xlsx")
  End Using
End Sub