Exporting Data into Excel in Multiple Worksheets

Introduction

One thing that all developers come across is putting DataGrid data into an Excel sheet. In this article, I will show you how you can export your DataGrid data to an Excel file.

Exporting DataGrid to Excel

Exporting to Excel is carried out here by dynamically building Excel XML code. The advantage of such an approach is that any number of worksheets can be created. This solves the problem were Excel truncates records after a count of 63000.

Using the Code

A brief description of how to use the code is given below. Use the below function in your web page in your code-behind or in a separate class. The function dynamically generates XML code for Excel. It returns a StringWriter object.

public System.IO.StringWriter ExportToExcelXML(DataSet source)
{
    System.IO.StringWriter excelDoc;
    excelDoc = new System.IO.StringWriter();
    StringBuilder ExcelXML = new StringBuilder();

    ExcelXML.Append("<xml version>\r\n<Workbook ");
    ExcelXML.Append("xmlns=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:spreadsheet\"\r\n");
    ExcelXML.Append(" xmlns:o=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office\"\r\n ");
    ExcelXML.Append("xmlns:x=\"urn:schemas- microsoft-com:office:");
    ExcelXML.Append("excel\"\r\n xmlns:ss=\"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:");
    ExcelXML.Append("office:spreadsheet\">\r\n <Styles>\r\n ");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Style ss:ID=\"Default\" ss:Name=\"Normal\">\r\n ");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Alignment ss:Vertical=\"Bottom\"/>\r\n <Borders/>");
    ExcelXML.Append("\r\n <Font/>\r\n <Interior/>\r\n <NumberFormat/>");
    ExcelXML.Append("\r\n <Protection/>\r\n </Style>\r\n ");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Style ss:ID=\"BoldColumn\">\r\n <Font ");
    ExcelXML.Append("x:Family=\"Swiss\" ss:Bold=\"1\"/>\r\n </Style>\r\n ");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Style ss:ID=\"StringLiteral\">\r\n <NumberFormat");
    ExcelXML.Append(" ss:Format=\"@\"/>\r\n </Style>\r\n <Style ");
    ExcelXML.Append("ss:ID=\"Decimal\">\r\n <NumberFormat ");
    ExcelXML.Append("ss:Format=\"0.0000\"/>\r\n </Style>\r\n ");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Style ss:ID=\"Integer\">\r\n <NumberFormat ");
    ExcelXML.Append("ss:Format=\"0\"/>\r\n </Style>\r\n <Style ");
    ExcelXML.Append("ss:ID=\"DateLiteral\">\r\n <NumberFormat ");
    ExcelXML.Append("ss:Format=\"mm/dd/yyyy;@\"/>\r\n </Style>\r\n ");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Style ss:ID=\"s28\">\r\n");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Alignment ss:Horizontal=\"Left\" ss:Vertical=\"Top\" 
        ss:ReadingOrder=\"LeftToRight\" ss:WrapText=\"1\"/>\r\n");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Font x:CharSet=\"1\" ss:Size=\"9\" ss:Color=\"#808080\" 
        ss:Underline=\"Single\"/>\r\n");
    ExcelXML.Append("<Interior ss:Color=\"#FFFFFF\" ss:Pattern=\"Solid\"/>
        </Style>\r\n");
    ExcelXML.Append("</Styles>\r\n ");

    string startExcelXML = ExcelXML.ToString();
    const string endExcelXML = "</Workbook>";
    int rowCount = 0;
    int sheetCount = 1;

    excelDoc.Write(startExcelXML);
    excelDoc.Write("<Worksheet ss:Name=\"Report_Sheet" + 
                   sheetCount + "\">");
    excelDoc.Write("<Table>");

    ///Header Part
    // Add any Header for the report
    ///

    excelDoc.Write("<Row ss:AutoFitHeight=\"0\" ss:Height=\"6.75\"/>\r\n");
    excelDoc.Write("<Row><Cell ss:MergeAcross=\"10\" ss:StyleID=\"s34\">
        <Data ss:Type=\"String\">");
    excelDoc.Write("HEADER TEXT");
    excelDoc.Write("</Data></Cell>");
    excelDoc.Write("<Cell ss:MergeAcross=\"1\" ss:StyleID=\"BoldColumn\">
        <Data ss:Type=\"String\">");
    excelDoc.Write("Report Date");
    excelDoc.Write("</Data></Cell>");
    excelDoc.Write("<Cell ss:MergeAcross=\"1\" ss:StyleID=\"DateLiteral\">
                <Data ss:Type=\"String\">");
    excelDoc.Write(GetDate(DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString()));
    excelDoc.Write("</Data></Cell></Row>"); 
    excelDoc.Write("<Row ss:AutoFitHeight=\"0\" ss:Height=\"10\"/>\r\n");

    ///Complete
    excelDoc.Write("<Row>");
    for (int x = 0; x < source.Tables[0].Columns.Count; x++)
    {
        excelDoc.Write("<Cell ss:StyleID=\"BoldColumn\"><Data ss:Type=\"String\">");
        excelDoc.Write(source.Tables[0].Columns[x].ColumnName);
        excelDoc.Write("</Data></Cell>");
    }
    excelDoc.Write("</Row>");

    foreach (DataRow x in source.Tables[0].Rows)
    {
        rowCount++;

        //if the number of rows is > 63000 create a new page to continue output
        if (rowCount == 63000)
        {
            rowCount = 0;
            sheetCount++;
            excelDoc.Write("</Table>");
            excelDoc.Write(" </Worksheet>");
            excelDoc.Write("<Worksheet ss:Name=\"Report_Sheet" + 
                           sheetCount + "\">");
            excelDoc.Write("<Table>");
            excelDoc.Write("<Row>");

            for (int xi = 0; xi < source.Tables[0].Columns.Count; xi++)
            {
                excelDoc.Write("<Cell ss:StyleID=\"BoldColumn\">" + 
                               "<Data ss:Type=\"String\">");
                excelDoc.Write(source.Tables[0].Columns[xi].ColumnName);
                excelDoc.Write("</Data></Cell>");
            }
            excelDoc.Write("</Row>");
        }
        excelDoc.Write("<Row>"); 

        for (int y = 0; y < source.Tables[0].Columns.Count; y++)
        {
            string XMLstring = x[y].ToString();

            XMLstring = XMLstring.Trim();
            XMLstring = XMLstring.Replace("&", "&");
            XMLstring = XMLstring.Replace(">", ">");
            XMLstring = XMLstring.Replace("<", "<");

            excelDoc.Write("<Cell ss:StyleID=\"StringLiteral\">" + 
                           "<Data ss:Type=\"String\">");
            excelDoc.Write(XMLstring);
            excelDoc.Write("</Data></Cell>");
        }
        excelDoc.Write("</Row>");
    }

    ///Ending Tag
    ///

    excelDoc.Write("<Row ss:Height=\"15\"><Cell ss:HRef=\http://www.sachin" + 
      "kumark.com\ss:MergeAcross=\"2\" ss:StyleID" + 
      "=\"s28\"><Data ss:Type=\"String\">");
    excelDoc.Write("www.sachinkumark.com");
    excelDoc.Write("</Data></Cell></Row>");
    excelDoc.Write("<Row ss:Height=\"15\"><Cell ss:MergeAcross=\"6\" 
            ss:StyleID=\"s28\"><Data ss:Type=\"String\">");
    excelDoc.Write("Copyright © 2007");
    excelDoc.Write("</Data></Cell></Row>"); 

    ///Complete
    excelDoc.Write("</Table>");
    excelDoc.Write(" </Worksheet>");
    excelDoc.Write(endExcelXML);

    return excelDoc;
}
//

The above function can be called from a button event like below:

private void lnkExcel1_Click(object sender, System.EventArgs e)
{
    Response.Buffer = true; 
    Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel";
    Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=Report.xls");

    this.EnableViewState = false;
    Response.Charset = string.Empty;
    System.IO.StringWriter myTextWriter = new System.IO.StringWriter();
    myTextWriter = ExportToExcelXML(Dataset);
    Response.Write(myTextWriter.ToString());
    Response.End();
}

Provide the DataSet as input to the function. For clarifications, please post in the discussion area below.

Points of Interest

Once you understand the schema, the code can be manipulated to format the rows inside Excel.