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I am trying to write a string that has multiple lines (comes from the server side) into a csv file for user to download in browser. However, using my code, I only get the csv files with all the data in a single line. Here is my code:

function getReport(){
    var report = "a,b,c,d;1,2,3,4;";
    //console.log(report);
    var csvcontent="";
    while (report.indexOf(";")!=-1)
    {
        csvcontent=csvcontent+ report.substring(0,report.indexOf(";"))+"\n";
        report=report.substring(report.indexOf(";")+1);
    }

    console.log(csvcontent);
    var a = document.createElement('a');
    a.href     = 'data:attachment/csv,' + csvcontent;
    a.target   = '_blank';
    a.download = 'myFile.csv';
    document.body.appendChild(a);
    //console.log("ok");
    a.click();
}

In the downloaded csv file, all the data will in a single line a,b,c,d1,2,3,4. Can anyone tell me how to solve this problem? Thanks in advance!

Koshien
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1 Answers1

8

Try this instead
a.href = 'data:text/csv;charset=utf-8;base64,' + window.btoa(csvcontent);
It converts the data to base64 which properly encodes the new line character. Why it doesn't work in your method I'm really not sure. One caveat is the btoa function won't work in older browsers check out this question for more information How can you encode a string to Base64 in JavaScript?

Community
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qw3n
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  • hmm, this method actually works. So the without this conversion to base 64, the program just cannot recognize the new line character? – Koshien May 15 '14 at 00:49
  • @Koshien I'm not sure, but somewhere in creating the data URI the new line character gets removed unless you do something like base64 encode it. – qw3n May 15 '14 at 01:56