The provider supports schema discovery using ADO.NET classes or using SQL queries to the available system tables. The ADO.NET classes enable access to schema information, connection property information, and information on the columns returned.

Through SQL queries to the available System Tables, you can access schema and connection property information as well as information on data source functionality and statistics on update operations.

Using ADO.NET Schema Collections

You can use ADO.NET schema collections to retrieve schema and connection property information. Invoke the GetSchema method of the ExcelConnection class to access the following metadata:

• Tables
• Views
• Columns
• Procedures
• Procedure Parameters
• Indexes
• Index Columns
• Connection Properties

Using Result Set Column Information

To access information about the columns returned by a query, invoke the GetSchemaTable method of the ExcelDataReader class. See Result Sets for code examples.

Using SQL

You can query the System Tables to access any metadata surfaced through the provider.