Question

What is the default encoding off Microsoft Excel 2007?

Asked by: toshi_

I tried a list of encoding my CSV files to export, but Microsoft Excel 2007 didn't want to recognise it. Her is the list:
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-2");
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("windows-1256");
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1");
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.Default;
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF7;
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.Default;
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.BigEndianUnicode
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII
- Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF32

using System;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using Ecowaste.E_plan.DomainLayer;
 
namespace Ecowaste.E_plan.WebSite
{
    public partial class generatingAllLevels : System.Web.UI.Page
    {
 
        private DataTable allLevelsAndForecast_;
        private string communityNameClean_;
 
        private Community theCommunity_;
        private Account Account_;
 
        private LanguageParser Parser_;
 
 
        protected override void OnInit(EventArgs e)
        {
            Account_ =  VarSession.Account;
            Parser_ = new LanguageParser();
            base.OnInit(e);
        }
 
 
        protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
        {
            theCommunity_              = VarSession.Community;
 
            CultureInfo cultureInfo     = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;
            TextInfo textInfo           = cultureInfo.TextInfo;
            communityNameClean_         = textInfo.ToTitleCase(theCommunity_.Db_name.Replace("_", " "));
            allLevelsAndForecast_       = RecoverValuesFromCache();
 
            if (bool.Parse(Request.Params["excel2003"]))
            {
                GiveExcellResponse();
            }
            else
            {
                GiveCSSResponse();
            }
        }
 
 
 
        private DataTable RecoverValuesFromCache()
        {
            string _wt;
            try
            {
                _wt = HttpContext.Current.Cache["Export_WT_" + theCommunity_.Db_name].ToString();
            } catch (NullReferenceException ex)
            {
                Console.Write("generatingAllLevels->RecoverValuesFromCache; ex:" + ex.Message);
                _wt = "";
            }
 
            // -- si c'est l'admin qui exporte, pas de type de deches, ils sont tous exportés.
            if(Account_.AccountType == DomainLayer.AccountType.AdminAccount || Account_.Id == 1000000)
            {
                _wt = "";
            }
 
            // -- RECOVER FROM CACHE -----------------------
            try
            {
 
                if (System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Cache["levelPrevision_" + _wt + "_"+theCommunity_.Db_name] != null)
                {
                    if(((DataTable)System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Cache["levelPrevision_"  +_wt+ "_" +theCommunity_.Db_name]).Rows.Count > 0)
                        return (DataTable) System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Cache["levelPrevision_" +_wt+ "_" + theCommunity_.Db_name];
                }
            } catch (System.NullReferenceException ex)
            {
                Console.Write("generatingAllLevels.aspx.cs->RecoverValuesFromCache; ex:" + ex.Message);
            }
            return (DataTable) System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Cache["levelPrevision_"+ _wt + "_" + theCommunity_.Db_name];
            // -- ------------------ -----------------------
        }
 
        private void GiveCSSResponse()
        {
            Response.Clear();
            Response.Buffer = true;
            Response.ContentType = "text/csv";
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-2");
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("windows-1256");
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1");
            Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
            Response.Charset = "";
            this.EnableViewState = false;
            Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "filename=" + theCommunity_.Db_name + "_ExportCSVContainersStatusLevels.csv");
 
            Response.Write(GenerateCSVWithAllContainersLevels().ToString());
 
            Response.End();
        }
 
 
        private void GiveExcellResponse()
        {
            Response.Clear();
            Response.Buffer = true;
            Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel";
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-15");
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("utf-8");
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("iso-8859-1");
 
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF7;    // ---> ok pour les char spéciaux, dictionnary KO.
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;    // ---> ok pour dictionnary, char spéciaux KO.
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.ASCII;   // ---> ok pour dictionnary, char spéciaux en "?" 
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode; // ---> ko, affiche en html. 
            //Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.Default; // --->  ko, comme utf8
            Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF7; // --->  ko, comme utf8
 
            Response.Charset = "";
            this.EnableViewState = false;
            Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "filename=" +theCommunity_.Db_name+ "_ExportContainersStatusLevels.xls");
 
            Response.Write(GenerateHeaderInfoForLevels().ToString());
            Response.Write("<table border=1>");
            Response.Write(GenerateExcelHeader().ToString());
            Response.Write(GenerateExcelWithAllContainersLevels().ToString());
            Response.Write("</table>");
 
            Response.End();
        }
 
 
#region page construction
        private StringBuilder GenerateHeaderInfoForLevels()
        {
 
            StringBuilder _htmlHeaderInfo = new StringBuilder();
            _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<table border=0 style='font-size:14px; font-weight:bold;'>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<tr>");
                    _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<td class='header_lab'><lng id=date/></td>    <td class='header_val' align='left'>" +DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString()+ " " +DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString()+ "</td>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("</tr>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<tr>");
                    _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<td class='header_lab'><lng id=Community/></td>   <td class='header_val' align='left'> "+communityNameClean_+"</td>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("</tr>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<tr>");
                    _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<td class='header_lab' style='background-color:#ff66aa;'><lng id=ColoredBackground/></td>    <td class='header_val' align='left'><lng id=InfoOlderThan30H/></td>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("</tr>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<tr>");
                    _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<td>&nbsp;</td>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("</tr>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<tr>");
                    _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("<td>&nbsp;</td>");
                _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("</tr>");
            _htmlHeaderInfo.Append("</table>");
 
            StringBuilder _Translated = Parser_.Translate(_htmlHeaderInfo);
 
            return _Translated;
        }
 
 
 
        private StringBuilder GenerateExcelHeader()
        {
            StringBuilder _htmlHeader = new StringBuilder();
 
                _htmlHeader .Append("<tr style='font-weight:bold; background-color:#eeefee; font-size:14px'>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td width=200><lng id=ContainerNo/>        </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td width=200><lng id=ContainerId/>        </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td><lng id=Address/>                      </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td><lng id=City/>                         </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td width=200><lng id=ContainerWasteType/> </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td><lng id=WasteMass/> [Kg]               </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td><lng id=level/>-Min [%]                </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td><lng id=level/> [%]                    </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td><lng id=level/>-Max [%]                </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td><lng id=LastDateLevel/>                </td>");
                    _htmlHeader.Append("<td><lng id=ContainerForecast/>            </td>");
                _htmlHeader .Append("</tr>");
 
            StringBuilder _Translated = Parser_.Translate(_htmlHeader);
 
            return _Translated;
        }
 
 
 
        private StringBuilder GenerateExcelWithAllContainersLevels()
        {
            StringBuilder _htmlPage = new StringBuilder();
 
            //int i = 0; 
            foreach(DataRow row in allLevelsAndForecast_.Rows)
            {
                // TODO : changer la couleur selon la dernière date.
                DateTime last   = (DateTime) row["last_punched_level"];
                DateTime now    = DateTime.Now;
                int      total  = (int)(now - last).TotalHours;
                
                if(total < 30)
                {
                    _htmlPage.Append("<tr>");
                }else
                {
                    _htmlPage.Append("<tr bgcolor='#ff66aa'>");
                }
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" + row["container_no"] + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" + row["container_id"] + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" +row["address"]             + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" +row["city"]                + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" +row["waste_type"]          + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" +row["mass"]                + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" +row["level_percent_min"]   + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" +row["level_percent"]       + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" +row["level_percent_max"]   + "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" + ((DateTime)row["last_punched_level"]).ToString("ddd, dd-MMM") + 
                                     " " +((DateTime)row["last_punched_level"]).ToShortTimeString()+ 
                        "</td>");
                    _htmlPage.Append("<td>" +row["forecast_days"]   + "</td>");
                _htmlPage.Append("</tr>");
            }
            StringBuilder _Translated = Parser_.Translate(_htmlPage);
 
            return _Translated;
        }
 
        public StringBuilder GenerateCSVWithAllContainersLevels()
        {
            StringBuilder CSVPage_;
            CSVPage_ = new StringBuilder();
 
            CSVPage_.Append(SetExportCSVHeader().ToString());
            CSVPage_.Append(SetContentCSVHeader().ToString());
            CSVPage_.Append(SetAllContainersLevelsCSV().ToString());
 
            return CSVPage_;
        }
 
        private StringBuilder SetExportCSVHeader()
        {
 
            StringBuilder _accuExportHeader = new StringBuilder();
            string separator = ";";
 
            /// -------------- PAGE HEADER -----------------------//
            /// 
             _accuExportHeader.Append("\n"); //nécessaire pour la traduction
 
            _accuExportHeader.Append("<lng id=date/>" + separator + DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString()+ " " +DateTime.Now.ToShortTimeString()+ "\n");
            _accuExportHeader.Append("<lng id=Community/>" + separator + communityNameClean_ + "\n");
            _accuExportHeader.Append("*" + separator + "<lng id=InfoOlderThan30H/>\n");
            _accuExportHeader.Append(" " + separator + "\n");
            _accuExportHeader.Append(" " + separator + "\n");
 
            /// -------------- END PAGE HEADER ----------------------------//
            /// 
            /// 
            /// 
 
            StringBuilder _Translated = Parser_.Translate(_accuExportHeader);
 
            return _Translated;
        }
 
        private StringBuilder SetContentCSVHeader()
        {
 
            StringBuilder _TempHeader = new StringBuilder();
            string separator = ";";
 
            _TempHeader.Append("\n"); //nécessaire pour la traduction
 
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=ContainerNo/>" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=ContainerId/>" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=Address/>" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=City/>" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=ContainerWasteType/>" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=WasteMass/>" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=level/>-Min [%]" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=level/> [%]" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=level/>-Max [%]" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=LastDateLevel/>" + separator);
            _TempHeader.Append("<lng id=ContainerForecast/>" + separator +"\n");
 
 
            StringBuilder _Translated = Parser_.Translate(_TempHeader);
 
            return _Translated;
        }
 
        private StringBuilder SetAllContainersLevelsCSV()
        {
            StringBuilder _accuContainers = new StringBuilder();
            string separator = ";";
 
            foreach (DataRow row in allLevelsAndForecast_.Rows)
            {
                // TODO : changer la couleur selon la dernière date.
                DateTime last = (DateTime)row["last_punched_level"];
                DateTime now = DateTime.Now;
                int total = (int)(now - last).TotalHours;
 
                _accuContainers.Append(row["container_no"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["container_id"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["address"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["city"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["waste_type"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["mass"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["level_percent_min"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["level_percent"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["level_percent_max"] + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(((DateTime)row["last_punched_level"]).ToString("ddd, dd-MMM") +
                                 " " + ((DateTime)row["last_punched_level"]).ToShortTimeString() + separator);
                _accuContainers.Append(row["forecast_days"] + separator);
                if (total >= 30)
                {
                    _accuContainers.Append("*");
                }
                _accuContainers.Append("\n");
            }
            StringBuilder _Translated = Parser_.Translate(_accuContainers);
 
            return _Translated;
        }
        #endregion
 
    }
}

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Asked On: 2009-08-31 at 08:53:50ID24695136
Tags: Microsoft Visual Studio 2005 .NET
,; Microsoft Excel 2007
Topics: .NET Framework 2.x
,; Microsoft Excel Spreadsheet Software
,; Microsoft Visual C#.Net
Participating Experts: 1
Points: 500
Comments: 11

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Answers

by: abelPosted on 2009-08-31 at 09:01:00ID: 25223879

The default is the default for the current system. For US based systems, that is Windows-1252. However, Excel shouldn't have trouble with UTF8 or UTF16 (Encoding.Unicode) either (but UTF7 or UTF32 are really out, don't use them).

by: toshi_Posted on 2009-09-01 at 01:51:26ID: 25229566

I tried Unicode and Windows-1252, witch are not in the given list of tried encoding, but no matter, Excel 2007 don't recognise such letters as "é". Witch encoding should I use with a swiss-french or european system?

by: abelPosted on 2009-09-01 at 02:25:00ID: 25229709

If you don't specify an encoding at all, the default should be used (this is different then Encoding.Default). For French, the normal encoding on Windows systems is Windows-1252. Other encodings that are well-suited and often used for French are ISO-8859-1 and ISO-8859-15 (with euro and Y+diaeresis).

If your é does not look good in Excel, how does it look? Can you give a small cut-out screenshot? You can also try it the other way around: save a file as CSV with these characters in it and then read it back in, does that work? If it does, can you post the file as attachment here, then I can tell you what encoding to use.

-- Abel --

by: abelPosted on 2009-09-01 at 02:29:03ID: 25229725

Looking again at your code, I think that something else maybe the problem. You are not exporting as CSV at all. Instead, you are using a trick, you give the name and headers for excel and then you output html. Try the same trick with the proper headers, and especially, include the following, which must match your encoding (use UTF8 for best coverage):

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" 
    "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html  xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/csv; charset=utf-8" /> 
</head>
<body>
... your table data
</body>
</html>

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by: toshi_Posted on 2009-09-01 at 04:24:53ID: 25230335

I tried ISO-8859-15 encoding, but always the same problem. The CSV file directly created works (test.csv in attachement). I send you also a screenshot of a UTF-8 CSV document.

The code export in Excel 2003 HTML format. This part of the code is working well. But it also tries to export in CSV for Excel 2007 (see GiveCSSResponse).

UTF-8-encoding.JPG
- 58 KB
screenshot of UTF-8 file
Test.csv
- 48 bytes
CSV file created in Windows

by: abelPosted on 2009-09-01 at 04:58:15ID: 25230559

I'm not surprised that other encodings do not work. That follows from your earlier reports.

The screenshot is clear: Excel reads it in as if it is ISO-8859-1 (or windows-1252) and that changes the letters into double letters for UTF8. What surprises me is that when you use the windows-1252 encoding, that it doesn't work.

What misses in your code is the CharSet, this should be "utf-8" (or another corresponding charset).

What also misses is what I said in my last comment: try adding correct HTML headers for the output, which may help the guessing game of Excel, which is currently apparently off.

Finally, check whether the HeaderEncoding and the ContentEncoding match and are the same.

-- Abel --

by: toshi_Posted on 2009-09-01 at 07:32:21ID: 25231973

I put your http header in the front code of my CSV-generating page. I tried to use ISO-8859-1 and windows-1252 with a CharSet of "utf-8", but the problem persists. Normaly, I should read the "é" char directly with for exemple the wordpad, but it gives me a "ï¿½" instead (see attached file).

lavigny-1175-ExportCSVContainers.csv
- 914 bytes
exported CSV file

by: abelPosted on 2009-09-01 at 09:03:29ID: 25232970

> I tried to use ISO-8859-1 and windows-1252 with a CharSet of "utf-8",

nono, I meant, quote: "or another corresponding charset", be exactly equal. So, windows-1252 with a charset of windows-1252. That must be followed by an HTML header with the same charset.

> Normaly, I should read the "é" char

I know. What you are creating is a UTF-8 file and what Excel is reading is a windows-1252 file. The file you have send here is that same file, saved again as CSV, hence that the encoding contains even more oddities.

The encoding must be the same on all ends for this to work. As long as that is not the case, it will not work.

I am under the impression that you first save the file to disk and then you open it in Excel. Is that correct?

From reports it seems that you need to add the BOM. It is a bug of Microsoft. Unfortunately, the current method for creating the CSV does not allow to add the BOM manually. http://www.jaanuskase.com/en/2006/01/csv_encoding_vs_excel.html

by: abelPosted on 2009-09-01 at 09:06:11ID: 25233002

Ah, something else I noticed with your code, all of a sudden, you are apparently not clearing the headers. It didn't occur to me earlier. But just Clear does not clear the headers. Use ClearHeaders for that. Don't think this will help, but you can try.

When you view your data without the content-disposition inside a browser, how does it look, is the é showing up correctly?

by: abelPosted on 2009-09-01 at 09:19:23ID: 25233122

Ok, if somehow we cannot manage to get all encodings equal, or if we are somehow blocked by Microsoft Excel bugs, one must try other approaches. Try the following (I cannot try it, but I tested it nonetheless):

1. Use Clear and ClearHeaders
2. Set all places where you have an encoding or a charset etc to utf-8
3. As very first statement, use the line in the code section
4. Do what you normally do

This will force a BOM (byte order mark). This is not necessary, but Microsoft Office products are famous to ignore UTF8 when it clearly is, and starting out with this unique three bytes (EF BB BF) hopefully forces the encoding on Excel. See also the link above which brought me to this idea.

PS: you are writing HTML, which is not CSV which can be the reason for your failure, too. Instead, use the normal Excel extension and mime type "application/vnd.ms-excel", as a last resort.


Response.ClearContent();
Response.ClearHeaders();
Response.ContentEncoding = Encoding.UTF8;
Response.HeaderEncoding = Encoding.UTF8;
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "filename=" + theCommunity_.Db_name + "_ExportCSVContainersStatusLevels.csv");
Response.Charset = "utf-8";
Response.ContentType = "text/csv";
 
// force UTF8 as very first write statement
Response.BinaryWrite(Encoding.UTF8.GetPreamble());
 
// write normal
Response.Write(GenerateCSVWithAllContainersLevels().ToString());
Response.End();

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by: toshi_Posted on 2009-09-04 at 07:33:17ID: 25260073

thank you very much for all the interest,
after trying different solutions,
we decide to change to xml - xls for the file generation.

you did not come with the solution but you help us on understand that this way would never work,
as a matter of fact i allow you all the points.

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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What is the default encoding off Microsoft Excel 2007?

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