ASP.NET Excel export encoding problem

84,636

Solution 1

Well I found out that the problem could be in the header of the excel file, that it does not contain the BOM byte sequence (at the beginning of the file representing the encoding used).

So I made it this way and it works for me:

Response.Clear();
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition","attachment;filename=Test.xls");   
Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.Unicode;
Response.BinaryWrite(System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetPreamble());

System.IO.StringWriter sw = new System.IO.StringWriter();
System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);

FormView1.RenderControl(hw);

Response.Write(sw.ToString());
Response.End();

Solution 2

For instances where UTF8 is needed...

FileInfo dataExportFile = new FileInfo(dsExport.Tables[0].Rows[0]["DataExportFile"].ToString());

Response.Clear();
Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";                        
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment;filename=" + dataExportFile.Name);
Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
Response.BinaryWrite(System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetPreamble());
Response.TransmitFile(dataExportFile.FullName);

Solution 3

Have you tried setting the encoding in a meta tag in the HTML?

<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="application/xhtml+xml; charset=UTF-8" />

Excel won't see the response headers, so it won't know what the Response.Encoding is. The meta tag allows it to find out.

Solution 4

I got same problem with spanish characters and solved it with this line of code.

        response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.Default ;

hope this helps

Solution 5

add Response.BinaryWrite(System.Text.Encoding.Unicode.GetPreamble());

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84,636

Author by

theSpyCry

Updated on July 09, 2022

Comments

theSpyCry almost 2 years

I'm doing some Excel Exports on the ASP.NET Site. Everything works except of the Encoding. When I open it in Excel, it looks like this:

Eingabe Kosten je GerÃ¤t GerÃ¤t: GerÃ¤tebezeichnung: Betriebsmittel HeizÃ¶l in â‚¬: 4 Dieselverbrauch in â‚¬: 4

This is my code:

Response.Clear();
Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "inline;filename=NachkalkGeraete.xls;");
var writer = new HtmlTextWriter(Response.Output);

SomeControl.RenderControl(writer); /* FormView, Table, DataGrid... */

Response.End();

I've already tried explicitly set the Encoding.. but no change occured:

Response.Clear();
Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel";
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=NachkalkGeraete.xls");

Response.BufferOutput = true;
Response.ContentEncoding = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8;
Response.Charset = "UTF-8";
EnableViewState = false;

System.IO.StringWriter tw = new System.IO.StringWriter();
HtmlTextWriter hw = new HtmlTextWriter(tw);

SomeControl.RenderControl(hw);

Response.Write(tw.ToString());
Response.End();

What is wrong, please?

theSpyCry over 14 years

I'm exporting a Control that is rendered which means that the file exported is html with a table only. no body, no headers. nothing..
kͩeͣmͮpͥ ͩ over 14 years

Adding at least <html><head><meta... /></head><body>...</body> is probably worth while then.
theSpyCry over 14 years

Yeah but i think that's the same solution as to add a byte header with encoding.. anyways it's a file to be opened in office.. what do you think ?
Chiramisu over 11 years

As a minimalist I tried eliminating lines 4 (ContentEncoding) & 5 (BinaryWrite) and was surprised to find it didn't work. Excellent job on finding this solution. Respect! :)
EdChum over 11 years

You should add a bit more than just code, such as where to add your one liner.
user441058 almost 9 years

I spent a few hours trying to get this to work and finally gave up and concatenated " " in front of my strings. A total hack. Thanks so much for figuring this out.
user441058 almost 9 years

My last comment doesn't sound right. I was trying to figure out a solution on my own and wasn't able to get it fixed until I came across your answer. :-)
Nikolaos Polygenis about 6 years

You save my day!!