# COMEXCEL Sample: Demonstrates an Automation Client Application with Compiler COM Support

COMEXCEL is a standalone Automation client. It creates a new Microsoft Excel spreadsheet and generates a pie chart of the data stored on that spreadsheet. This sample works only with Microsoft Excel, which exposes the dispinterfaces.

Security Note
This sample code is provided to illustrate a concept and should not be used in applications or Web sites, as it may not illustrate the safest coding practices.

# Building and Running the Sample

Make sure that the #import reference to COMEXCEL.exe in the sample's source code is correct for your computer.

To build this sample within Visual C++, determine which version of Excel you have on your computer and then look in the appropriate COMEXCEL sample directory.

If you get an access violation while running the COMEXCEL sample under Windows NT 4.0, install the Windows NT Service Pack 3.

Note
If you are running Visual C++ Express Edition, you might need to install the Platform SDK before running this sample. For information on how to do this, see How to: Use Visual C++ Express Edition with the Microsoft Platform SDK.

#### To build and run this sample

1. Open the solution comexcel.sln.

2. If you are using Excel 2000, modify the following line in comexcel.cpp:

       #define OFFICE_VER OFFICEXP

   to instead be:

       #define OFFICE_VER OFFICE2000

3. On the Build menu, click Build Solution.

4. On the Debug menu, click Start Without Debugging.

# Keywords

This sample demonstrates the following keywords:

dispinterface; #import; _com_ptr_t; _variant_t; _bstr_t; _com_error