C# VS2005 Convert Pipe Delimited .TXT to Excel Workbook .XLS

Question

I am using VS2005 C# and im trying to convert a pipe delimited text file to excel workbook format. Below is my code:

public partial class TextToExcel : System.Web.UI.Page
{

    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

    }
    protected void SaveAsExcelBtn_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {

        string xlExtension = ".csv";
        string strExcelOutputFilename = "C:/Documents and Settings/rhlim/My Documents/" + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss") + xlExtension;

        // Before attempting to import the file, verify 
        // that the FileUpload control contains a file. 
        if (TextFile.HasFile)
        {
            // Get the name of the Excel spreadsheet. 
            string strFileName = Server.HtmlEncode(TextFile.FileName);

            // Get the extension of the text. 
            string strExtension = Path.GetExtension(strFileName);



            // Validate the file extension. 
            if (strExtension != ".TXT" && strExtension!=".txt")
            {

                Response.Write("<script>alert('Failed to import. Cause: Invalid text file.');</script>");
                return;
            }




            // Generate the file name to save the text file. 
            //string strUploadFileName = "C:/Documents and Settings/rhlim/My Documents/Visual Studio 2005/WebSites/SoD/UploadFiles/" + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss") + strExtension;

            using (StreamWriter outputWriter = new StreamWriter(File.Create(strExcelOutputFilename)))
            {
                StreamReader inputReader = new StreamReader(TextFile.FileContent);
                string fileContent = inputReader.ReadToEnd();
                fileContent = fileContent.Replace('|', ';');
                outputWriter.Write(fileContent);
                TextFile.SaveAs(strExcelOutputFilename);
                inputReader.Close();
            }


            //string strExcelOutputFilename = "C:/Documents and Settings/rhlim/My Documents/" + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss")+xlExtension;
            // Save the Excel spreadsheet on server. 
            //TextFile.SaveAs (strExcelOutputFilename);


        }
        else Response.Write("<script>alert('Failed to import. Cause: No file found');</script>");
    }
}

Currently I am having some file saving errors

Any suggestions? Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

That's because Excel doesnt support pipelines you have to convert it so comma's or semicolumns like:

using (StreamWriter outputWriter = new StreamWriter(File.Create(strExcelOutputFilename)))
{
    StreamReader inputReader = new StreamReader(TextFile.FileContent);
    string fileContent = inputReader.ReadToEnd();

    fileContent = fileContent.Replace('|', ',');
    outputWriter.Write(fileContent);
}

Answer 2

I googled and hope it will help you: http://csharp.net-informations.com/excel/csharp-create-excel.htm

Or, already answered: Create Excel (.XLS and .XLSX) file from C#

At the first link, the line xlWorkSheet.Cell[x,y] to put element in the dedicated cell.

FYI, xlsx format(new from Office 2007) will give you a great manipulation capability with code.

Answer 3

For generating and manipulating excel files, I personally prefer the NPOI library. Download it from Codeplex, add reference to the NPOI dlls to your project. Store a “template” excel file you would like in a known location, with the any column headers/formatting that you need. Then you just use npoi to make a copy of the template file and manipulate it at a sheet/row/column level and put whatever data you want.

The sample code snippet looks something like this. Assuming you have split your input into a List of strings

const string ExcelTemplateFile = "~/Resources/ExcelInputTemplate.xls";
const string ExcelWorksheetName = "Output Worksheet";
const int RequiredColumn = 1;

private HSSFWorkbook CreateExcelWorkbook(IEnumerable<String> inputData)
{
        FileStream fs = new FileStream(Server.MapPath(ExcelTemplateFile), FileMode.Open, FileAccess.Read);

        // Getting the complete workbook...
        HSSFWorkbook templateWorkbook = new HSSFWorkbook(fs, true);

        // Getting the worksheet by its name...
        HSSFSheet sheet = templateWorkbook.GetSheet(ExcelWorksheetName);

        int startRowIterator = 1;

        foreach (string currentData in inputData)
        {
            sheet.CreateRow(startRowIterator).CreateCell(RequiredColumn).SetCellValue(currentData);
        }
}