Export DataTable to Excel asp

Question

I have a web page that exports data to an excel file. The only problem I am having is when I try and open the excel file I get a message saying "The file you are trying to open is in a different format than specified by the file extension. Verify the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source before opening the file.". How can I get rid of this message. To do the export I am using a function that I found in another article. Here is the code...

private void ExporttoExcel(DataTable table)
{
    //Response.Clear();
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear();
    HttpContext.Current.Response.ClearContent();
    HttpContext.Current.Response.ClearHeaders();
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Buffer = true;
    HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/excel";
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(@"<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC ""-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN"">");
    HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=TestingReports");
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Charset = "UTF-8";
    HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("windows-1252");
    // Sets font
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("<font style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Calibri;'>");
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("<BR><BR><BR>");
    // Sets the table border, cell spacing, border color, font of the text, background, foreground, font height
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("<Table bgColor='#ffffff' cellSpacing='0' cellPadding='0' style='font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Calibri; background:white;'> <TR>");
    // Am getting my grid's column headers
    int columnscount = table.Columns.Count;

    // Write in new column
    for (int j = 0; j < columnscount; j++)
    {
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("<Td style='font-size:15.0pt; text-align:center; width:80.0pt; border-width:1.0pt; border-color:#000000; border-style:solid; height:22.0pt;'>");
        // Get column headers  and make it as bold in excel columns
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("<B>");
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(table.Columns[j].ToString());
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("</B>");
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("</Td>");
    }
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("</TR>");

    // Write in new row
    foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
    {
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("<TR>");
        for (int i = 0; i < table.Columns.Count; i++)
        {
            HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("<Td style='width:80.0pt; text-align:center; border-width:0.5pt; border-color:#000000; border-style:solid; height:22.0pt;'>");
            HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(row[i].ToString());
            HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("</Td>");
        }
        HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("</TR>");
    }
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("</Table>");
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write("</font>");
    HttpContext.Current.Response.Flush();
    HttpContext.Current.Response.End();

    //Response.Write("TestingReports.xls");
    //Response.Flush();
    //Response.End();
}

Any help will be much appreciated. Thank you in advance.

Duplicate. See here http://stackoverflow.com/questions/3968973/how-can-i-write-data-into-an-excel-using-php — Ramesh Durai, Apr 24 '13 at 12:24

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 24 '13 at 12:26

Below method is used to export in excel from your c# code.

// fileName = your file name like test.xls
// dt = your data table
// caption = it is caption which display on top of excel file.


 public static void Export(string fileName, DataTable dt, string Caption)
        {


            HttpContext.Current.Response.Clear();
            HttpContext.Current.Response.ClearHeaders();
            HttpContext.Current.Response.ClearContent();
            HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.GetEncoding("windows-1254");
            HttpContext.Current.Response.Charset = "windows-1254"; //ISO-8859-13 ISO-8859-9  windows-1254

            HttpContext.Current.Response.AddHeader(
                "content-disposition", string.Format("attachment; filename={0}", fileName));
            HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
            string header = "<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN\" \"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd\">\n<html xmlns=\"http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml\">\n<head>\n<title></title>\n<meta http-equiv=\"Content-Type\" content=\"text/html; charset=windows-1254\" />\n<style>\n</style>\n</head>\n<body>\n";

            using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
            {
                using (HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
                {
                    //  Create a form to contain the grid

                    Table table = new Table();
                    table.GridLines = GridLines.Horizontal;
                    //table.CellSpacing = 17;                                      

                    if (Caption.Trim() != "")
                        table.Caption = "<span style='background-color: #FFFFFF; color: #666666; font-size: 14pt; font-weight: bold; padding: 5px 0px; height: 30px;'>" + Caption + "</span>";

                    TableRow row = null;
                    row = new TableRow();
                    for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++)
                    {
                        TableHeaderCell headerCell = new TableHeaderCell();
                        headerCell.Text = dt.Columns[i].ColumnName;
                        PrepareControlForExport(headerCell);
                        row.Cells.Add(headerCell);
                    }
                    table.Rows.Add(row);
                    foreach (DataRow rows in dt.Rows)
                    {
                        row = new TableRow();
                        for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++)
                        {
                            TableCell RowCell = new TableCell();
                            RowCell.Text = rows[i].ToString();
                            PrepareControlForExport(RowCell);
                            row.Cells.Add(RowCell);
                        }
                        table.Rows.Add(row);
                    }

                    //  render the table into the htmlwriter
                    table.RenderControl(htw);

                    //  render the htmlwriter into the response
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.ContentType = "text/csv";
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.Write(header + sw.ToString());
                    HttpContext.Current.Response.End();

                 }
            }
        }

        private static void PrepareControlForExport(Control control)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < control.Controls.Count; i++)
            {
                Control current = control.Controls[i];
                if (current is LinkButton)
                {
                    control.Controls.Remove(current);
                    control.Controls.AddAt(i, new LiteralControl((current as LinkButton).Text));
                }
                else if (current is ImageButton)
                {
                    control.Controls.Remove(current);
                    control.Controls.AddAt(i, new LiteralControl((current as ImageButton).AlternateText));
                }
                else if (current is HyperLink)
                {
                    control.Controls.Remove(current);
                    control.Controls.AddAt(i, new LiteralControl((current as HyperLink).Text));
                }
                else if (current is DropDownList)
                {
                    control.Controls.Remove(current);
                    control.Controls.AddAt(i, new LiteralControl((current as DropDownList).SelectedItem.Text));
                }
                else if (current is CheckBox)
                {
                    control.Controls.Remove(current);
                    control.Controls.AddAt(i, new LiteralControl((current as CheckBox).Checked ? "True" : "False"));
                }
                else if (current is Label)
                {
                    control.Controls.Remove(current);
                    control.Controls.AddAt(i, new LiteralControl((current as Label).Text));
                }

                if (current.HasControls())
                {
                    ReportExport.PrepareControlForExport(current);
                }
            }
        }

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Apr 24 '13 at 12:27

Change your content type to application/ms-excel and include extension in the file name. i.e.

Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=MyFileName.xls");

I have written an article regarding this with 3 different ways earlier. You can use one of those methods.

The HTML table way:

    public void ExportToExcel(DataTable table)
    {
        HttpContext context = HttpContext.Current;
        context.Response.Clear();

        //Begin Table
        context.Response.Write("<table><tr>");

        //Write Header
        foreach (DataColumn column in table.Columns)
        {
            context.Response.Write("<th>" + column.ColumnName + "</th>");
        }
        context.Response.Write("</tr>");

        //Write Data
        foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
        {
            context.Response.Write("<tr>");
            for (int i = 0; i < table.Columns.Count; i++)
            {
                context.Response.Write("<td>" + row[i].ToString().Replace(",", string.Empty) + "</td>");
            }
            context.Response.Write("</tr>");
        }

        //End Table
        context.Response.Write("</table>");

        context.Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
        context.Response.AppendHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=MyFileName.xls");
        context.Response.End();
    }

score 0 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 24 '13 at 12:26

While what your doing would probably work it would also take a VERY long time to read in a medium to large file. Check this excel reader out. Since you have the Dataset all you will have to do is loop through creating a filestream and you will have your excel document

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Apr 24 '13 at 12:28

Web sites that use the "application/x-msexcel" or "application/vnd.ms-excel" MIME type to open web page content inside of Microsoft Excel may encounter the following warning prompt when the file attempts to open in Excel 2007:

"The file you are trying to open, '[filename]', is in a different format than specified by the file extension. Verify that the file is not corrupted and is from a trusted source before opening the file. Do you want to open the file now?" (Yes | No | Help)

If the user clicks Yes, the file will open as expected. If the user clicks No, the file may open anyway, or may prompt a second time, and then not open if the user selects No again.

More Information on http://blogs.msdn.com/b/vsofficedeveloper/archive/2008/03/11/excel-2007-extension-warning.aspx

Export DataTable to Excel asp

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