Create Excel workbook in asp.net

Question

I need to generate an excel file for a user on the fl upon button click. I was using Netoffice before which worked fine for desktop applications. But now I want to do the same thing with an asp.net app. This way my server code doesn't have an access to the client's copy of excel. What approach should I take?

Answer 1

You can try simple HTML table (inlcude html, head, and body tags). Just save it with XLS extension.

---

Answer 2

You can use a DataGrid to create Excel files on the fly. It doesn't require Excel.

public static void ExportDataSetToExcel(DataSet ds, string filename)
{
    HttpResponse response = HttpContext.Current.Response;

    // first let's clean up the response.object
    response.Clear();
    response.Charset = "";

    // set the response mime type for excel
    response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel";
    response.AddHeader(
        "Content-Disposition",
        "attachment;filename=\"" + filename + "\""
    );

   // create a string writer
   using (StringWriter sw = new StringWriter())
   {
       using (HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw))
       {
            // instantiate a datagrid
            DataGrid dg = new DataGrid();
            dg.DataSource = ds.Tables[0];
            dg.DataBind();
            dg.RenderControl(htw);
            response.Write(sw.ToString());
            dg.Dispose();
            ds.Dispose();
            response.End();
       }
    }
}

Answer 3

Netoffice requires MS Office on executing machine. Does your server has it?

Answer 4

Use EPPlus. It allows you to create Excel spreadsheets on the server. I've used it and it worked great. It supports advanced functions.

using (ExcelPackage pck = new ExcelPackage())
{
    //Create the worksheet
    ExcelWorksheet ws = pck.Workbook.Worksheets.Add("Demo");

    //Load the datatable into the sheet, starting from cell A1. Print the column names on row 1
    ws.Cells["A1"].LoadFromDataTable(tbl, true);

    //Format the header for column 1-3
    using (ExcelRange rng = ws.Cells["A1:C1"])
    {
        rng.Style.Font.Bold = true;
        rng.Style.Fill.PatternType = ExcelFillStyle.Solid;

        //Set Pattern for the background to Solid
        rng.Style.Fill.BackgroundColor.SetColor(Color.FromArgb(79, 129, 189));

        //Set color to dark blue
        rng.Style.Font.Color.SetColor(Color.White);
    }

    //Example how to Format Column 1 as numeric 
    using (ExcelRange col = ws.Cells[2, 1, 2 + tbl.Rows.Count, 1])
    {
        col.Style.Numberformat.Format = "#,##0.00";
        col.Style.HorizontalAlignment = ExcelHorizontalAlignment.Right;
    }

    //Write it back to the client
    Response.Clear();
    Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;  filename=file.xlsx");
    Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet";                    
    Response.BinaryWrite(pck.GetAsByteArray());
    Response.End();
}

Answer 5

The most flexible and likely to do exactly what you need is going to take some work, but it's free -- and really works. Use the toolkit to look at existing documents to see how to create the features you want.

Open XML 2.0 SDK