How To Determine Which Version of Excel Wrote a Workbook (225029)

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Microsoft Excel saves data using structured storage. In particular, it creates a data stream called "Workbook" (previously just "Book") where it saves the contents starting with a Beginning of File (BOF) record. This record contains useful attributes of the workbook, as well as the version. The following Microsoft Visual C++ code demonstrates how to open a file, read it, and return the version number based on the BOF:

1. Create a new Win32 Console Application in Microsoft Developer Studio, and name it XlVer.
2. Add a C++ Source File (.cpp) to the project and add the following code to the source file:

      #include <windows.h>
      #include <stdio.h>
   
      int XLVersionThatWroteFile(char *filename) {
         // Translate filename to Unicode
         WCHAR wcFilename[1024];
         int i = mbstowcs(wcFilename, filename, strlen(filename));
         wcFilename[i] = 0;
   
         // Open the document as an OLE compound document
         IStorage *pStorage;
         HRESULT hr;
         hr = ::StgOpenStorage(wcFilename, NULL,
                    STGM_READ | STGM_SHARE_EXCLUSIVE, NULL, 0, &pStorage);
   
         if(FAILED(hr)) return 0;
         // Open the data-stream where Microsoft Excel stores the data
         IStream *pStream;
         hr = pStorage->OpenStream(L"Workbook", NULL,
            STGM_READ | STGM_SHARE_EXCLUSIVE, 0, &pStream);
   
         // If "Workbook" does not exist, try "Book"
         if(FAILED(hr)) {
            hr = pStorage->OpenStream(L"Book", NULL,
   
                 STGM_READ | STGM_SHARE_EXCLUSIVE, 0, &pStream);
         }
         if(FAILED(hr)) {
            pStorage->Release();
            return 0;
         }
   
         // Get rupBuild & rupYear
         short rupBuild, rupYear;
         LARGE_INTEGER off;
         ULARGE_INTEGER newPos;
         off.QuadPart = 8;
         pStream->Seek(off, STREAM_SEEK_SET, &newPos);
         DWORD bytesRead;
         pStream->Read(&rupBuild, 2, &bytesRead);
         pStream->Read(&rupYear, 2, &bytesRead);
   
         // Let go of the IStorage pointer
         pStorage->Release();
   
         // Excel 8.0's rupyear = 1996
         if(rupYear == 1996) return 8;
         // Excel 9.0 comes after Excel 8.0...
         if(rupYear > 1996) return 9;
         // Excel 5.0's rupyear < 1994
         if(
            (rupYear < 1994) ||
            // Excel 5.0 & 7.0 have rupYear=1994 for some versions...
            (rupBuild == 2412) || (rupBuild == 3218) || (rupBuild == 3321)
         ) return 5;
         // All that's left is Excel 7.0
         return 7;
   
      }
   
      void main(int argc, char **argv) {
         if(argc != 2) {
            printf("Usage: XLVER filename.xls");
         }
         else {
            printf("Excel version = %d", XLVersionThatWroteFile(argv[1]));
         }
      }
   					

3. Compile, and then find an .xls file on your machine and run the program as follows:
   
   XlVer.exe myfile.x