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How do I get Gridview Export to Excel not to add extra rows

I have simple web page with gridview that I want to export to Excel. One of the cells has several embedded <BR />. This data displays fine in web page, but I get an extra row in excel for each <br />. I have tried all the replace <br /> with vbcrlf and many other attempts, but none produces a single excel row for a gridview row that has cell with embedded carriage returns. I know I'm not the only one having this problem, but can't seem to find right answer. Any help would be sincerely appreciated. I have added all the code and attached snapshot of web page output and Excel output.

<%@ Page Language="VB" AutoEventWireup="false" CodeFile="Default.aspx.vb" Inherits="_Default" %>
 
<!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 runat="server">
    <title></title>
</head>
<body>
    <form id="form1" runat="server">
    <div>
        <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False">
            <Columns>
                <asp:BoundField HeaderText="col1" DataField="field_a" HtmlEncode="False" />
                <asp:BoundField HeaderText="col2" DataField="field_b" />
            </Columns>
        </asp:GridView>
    </div>
    <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" Text="Export" />
    </form>
</body>
</html>
 
Imports System.Data
Partial Class _Default
    Inherits System.Web.UI.Page
 
    Protected Sub Page_Load(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Me.Load
        Dim mydatatable As New DataTable
        mydatatable.Columns.Add("field_a", Type.GetType("System.String"))
        mydatatable.Columns.Add("field_b", Type.GetType("System.String"))
        Dim myrow As DataRow
        myrow = mydatatable.NewRow
        myrow("field_a") = "<div >WAS7 installed in lab <br />Jimtest2<br /><br />Jimtest3</div>"
        myrow("field_b") = "filed b row 1"
        mydatatable.Rows.Add(myrow)
        myrow = mydatatable.NewRow
        myrow("field_a") = "filed a row 2"
        myrow("field_b") = "filed b row 3"
        mydatatable.Rows.Add(myrow)
        GridView1.DataSource = mydatatable
        GridView1.DataBind()
    End Sub
 
    Protected Sub Button1_Click(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles Button1.Click
        GridViewExportUtil.Export("C:\Customers.xls", Me.GridView1)
    End Sub
 
 
    Protected Sub GridView1_RowDataBound(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Web.UI.WebControls.GridViewRowEventArgs) Handles GridView1.RowDataBound
        If e.Row.RowType = DataControlRowType.DataRow Then
            
        End If
 
    End Sub
End Class
 
Imports System
Imports System.Data
Imports System.Configuration
Imports System.IO
Imports System.Web
Imports System.Web.Security
Imports System.Web.UI
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls
Imports System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts
Imports System.Web.UI.HtmlControls
 
Public Class GridViewExportUtil
 
    Public Shared Sub Export(ByVal fileName As String, ByVal gv As GridView)
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear()
        HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", String.Format("attachment; filename={0}", fileName))
        HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel"
        Dim sw As StringWriter = New StringWriter
        Dim htw As HtmlTextWriter = New HtmlTextWriter(sw)
        '  Create a form to contain the grid
        Dim table As Table = New Table
        table.GridLines = gv.GridLines
        '  add the header row to the table
        If (Not (gv.HeaderRow) Is Nothing) Then
            GridViewExportUtil.PrepareControlForExport(gv.HeaderRow)
            table.Rows.Add(gv.HeaderRow)
        End If
        '  add each of the data rows to the table
        For Each row As GridViewRow In gv.Rows
            GridViewExportUtil.PrepareControlForExport(row)
            table.Rows.Add(row)
        Next
        '  add the footer row to the table
        If (Not (gv.FooterRow) Is Nothing) Then
            GridViewExportUtil.PrepareControlForExport(gv.FooterRow)
            table.Rows.Add(gv.FooterRow)
        End If
        '  render the table into the htmlwriter
        table.RenderControl(htw)
        '  render the htmlwriter into the response
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(sw.ToString)
 
        HttpContext.Current.Response.End()
    End Sub
 
    ' Replace any of the contained controls with literals
    Private Shared Sub PrepareControlForExport(ByVal control As Control)
        Dim i As Integer = 0
        Do While (i < control.Controls.Count)
            Dim current As Control = control.Controls(i)
            If (TypeOf current Is LinkButton) Then
                control.Controls.Remove(current)
                control.Controls.AddAt(i, New LiteralControl(CType(current, LinkButton).Text))
            ElseIf (TypeOf current Is ImageButton) Then
                control.Controls.Remove(current)
                control.Controls.AddAt(i, New LiteralControl(CType(current, ImageButton).AlternateText))
            ElseIf (TypeOf current Is HyperLink) Then
                control.Controls.Remove(current)
                control.Controls.AddAt(i, New LiteralControl(CType(current, HyperLink).Text))
            ElseIf (TypeOf current Is DropDownList) Then
                control.Controls.Remove(current)
                control.Controls.AddAt(i, New LiteralControl(CType(current, DropDownList).SelectedItem.Text))
            ElseIf (TypeOf current Is CheckBox) Then
                control.Controls.Remove(current)
                control.Controls.AddAt(i, New LiteralControl(CType(current, CheckBox).Checked))
                'TODO: Warning!!!, inline IF is not supported ?
            End If
            If current.HasControls Then
                GridViewExportUtil.PrepareControlForExport(current)
            End If
            i = (i + 1)
        Loop
    End Sub
End Class

Open in new window

GV2Excel.doc

SaWey

In VBA it is 'Chr(10)' so it might be the same in ASP.

yr2yr

ASKER

Tried replacing <br /> with chr(10) and other forms of cr lf - They all get stripped out and I end up with single line cell in Excel. I want to export in a way so that embedded crlf will create multi-line cell in Excel. I have simplied it even farther - I created a csv file with embedded crlf and it loads in Excel as multiple rows instead of single row with first cell having multiple lines. Text wrap is on in Excel.
Am I trying to do something that cannot be done? - I just want to export multi-line data to Excel and have it show up in Excel as single row with muilt-line cells based on crlf chars.

SaWey

Are you using it like
xlWorkSheet.Cells(1, 1) = "This is the first line" & Chr(10) & "and this is the second line"

ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION

yr2yr

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