Question

I want users to download CSV files.

Asked by: pjack76

So I have a generic reporting tool that users can use to run reports against our database.  They enter some input on a simple form or two, and the reporting tool takes that input and generates a complex SQL statement.  The SQL statement is executed and the results are displayed in an HTML table.

Fine.  My users, however, have requested that they want to be able to save the data in an Excel spreadsheet, so they can generate charts, for instance.

I can easily create a .CSV file and redirect the Response to that .CSV file -- but this is not what I want to do.  Some of the .CSV files would be *huge*, hundreds of thousands of rows, so there would be two very lengthy phases:  1, create the .CSV by iterating over every row in the record set; and 2, upload every row in the record set to the client.  

I just want 1 phase.  I want to send the database data in CSV format directly to the user, without saving it in an intermediate file first.  

I can set the content type to text/csv, which will prompt the user to Open/Save.  But the filename will be wrong.  (It would be something like Upload.asp).  

My question is, Can I set the filename in a response header or something?  It seems like this should be really obvious but I haven't found a way to do it.  

Help is appreciated.





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Asked On
2002-11-23 at 14:18:32ID20406173
Tags

can

,

content

,

create

,

csv

,

file

Topic

Active Server Pages (ASP)

Participating Experts
2
Points
50
Comments
3

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Answers

 

by: apolloisPosted on 2002-11-23 at 16:18:32ID: 7488363

Add the following at the top of your ASP:

Response.contenttype = "text/csv"
Response.AddHeader "Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=somefile.csv"

This should do it.

Best Regards,
Jim

 

by: pjack76Posted on 2002-11-24 at 11:12:40ID: 7490658

Thanks!  That did exactly what I needed.  

 

by: ZvikaPosted on 2003-01-22 at 05:20:11ID: 7779607

apollois

I have some asp files that does the same as you suggests, however, if the client uses Internet Explorer for Macintosh the file name is the asp file name.

are you familiar with that phenomena?

Thanks
Zvika

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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