Question

export to excel some values have commas

Asked by: jackjohnson44

I had an asp.net page setup that would export to a csv file.  Unfortunately some of the values have commas, so that won't work.

Is there a way to export straight to excel incase there are commas already?

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Asked On
2009-04-28 at 11:51:24ID24362953
Topics

Microsoft Visual C#.Net

,

Programming for ASP.NET

,

.NET

Participating Experts
5
Points
500
Comments
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Answers

 

by: oobaylyPosted on 2009-04-28 at 11:57:15ID: 24253934

When exporting to CSV, I tend to wrap any DateTime and string values in quotes. Either that or I generate a Tab delimited file.

 

by: kaufmedPosted on 2009-04-28 at 11:58:38ID: 24253953

If the values already have commas, why not just write a regular text file (i.e. StreamWriter / FileStream) and give the file a .csv extension--no need for Excel.

 

by: jackjohnson44Posted on 2009-04-28 at 12:01:21ID: 24253982

The requirement is to export to excel.  It is actually a page where you can put in a sql string and it should output the content in excel.  I don't know what fields will be coming out.  Is there a way to do it without using commas?

 

by: GiftsonDJohnPosted on 2009-04-28 at 12:19:25ID: 24254211

If you are able to create a table then you can directly send the data to excel without even creating a csv format.

 

by: jackjohnson44Posted on 2009-04-28 at 12:25:03ID: 24254263

Thanks, I agree.  I was wondering how to do that.  I have already ruled out using csv since my columns have commas in them.

 

by: GiftsonDJohnPosted on 2009-04-28 at 12:36:44ID: 24254377

Do like this.

I am assuming you have all the data in a DataTable

        DataTable dt = <load the data into datatable>
 
        StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter();
 
        using (HtmlTextWriter writer = new HtmlTextWriter(stringWriter))
        {
            writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Table);
 
            writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Tr);
            foreach (DataColumn dc in dt.Columns)
            {
                writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Th);
                writer.Write(dc.ColumnName);
                writer.RenderEndTag();
            }
            writer.RenderEndTag();
 
            foreach (DataRow dr in dt.Rows)
            {
                writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Tr);
 
                foreach (DataColumn dc in dt.Columns)
                {
                    writer.RenderBeginTag(HtmlTextWriterTag.Td);
                    writer.Write(dr[dc]);
                    writer.RenderEndTag();
                }
 
                writer.RenderEndTag();
            }
        }
 
        Response.ClearContent();
        Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment; filename=outputfile.xls");
        Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
 
        Response.Write(stringWriter.ToString());
        Response.End(); 
                                              
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by: MrPhenixPosted on 2009-04-28 at 12:44:01ID: 24254449

Or why not use ';' as separator instead of ',' that would also work and it will cause less change.

Both ; and , is accepted as csv separator.

 

by: gregoryyoungPosted on 2009-04-28 at 14:08:50ID: 24255162

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180

   6.  Fields containing line breaks (CRLF), double quotes, and commas
       should be enclosed in double-quotes.  For example:

       "aaa","b CRLF
       bb","ccc" CRLF
       zzz,yyy,xxx



   7.  If double-quotes are used to enclose fields, then a double-quote
       appearing inside a field must be escaped by preceding it with
       another double quote.  For example:

       "aaa","b""bb","ccc"



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