Introduction
In this article, we will see how to Export an ASP.Net 2.0 GridView to Excel.
The focus of the article is the Export to Excel functionality - the Gridview and it's data binding are only for demonstrating the Export functionality.
The code fragments for the Export to Excel functionality below are not linked to the backend structure and can be re-used across projects for the common functionality provided.
Step 1: Setup your web page with the Gridview
In this article, we will assume you are starting with a web page which holds a GridView named GridView1. The GridView in our demo code is bound to a table named "ContactPhone" in a SQL Express database. The following code which exports the databound GridView to Excel is not dependent on the specific databindings and can be used without changes for your scenario.
ContactPhone Table Structure:
| Column Name |
Type |
| ContactID |
Int (Identity) |
| FName |
Varchar(50) |
| LName |
Varchar(50) |
| ContactPhone |
Varchar(20) |
Step: The Actual Export
The code to do the Excel Export is very straightforward. You can also export to different application type by changing the content-disposition and ContentType.
string attachment = "attachment; filename=Contacts.xls";
Response.ClearContent();
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", attachment);
Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
GridView1.RenderControl(htw);
Response.Write(sw.ToString());
Response.End();
If you run the code as above, it will result in an HttpException as follows:
Control 'GridView1' of type 'GridView' must be placed inside a form tag with runat=server."
To avoid this error, add the following code:
public override void VerifyRenderingInServerForm(Control control)
{
}
Step: Convert the contents
If the GridView contains any controls, such as Checkboxes, Dropdownlists, we need to replace the contents with their relevant values. The following recursive function uses Reflection to determine the type of control. The control is deleted in preparation for the Excel export and the relevant value of the control is added.
private void PrepareGridViewForExport(Control gv)
{
LinkButton lb = new LinkButton();
Literal l = new Literal();
string name = String.Empty;
for (int i = 0; i < gv.Controls.Count; i++)
{
if (gv.Controls[i].GetType() == typeof(LinkButton))
{
l.Text = (gv.Controls[i] as LinkButton).Text;
gv.Controls.Remove(gv.Controls[i]);
gv.Controls.AddAt(i, l);
}
else if (gv.Controls[i].GetType() == typeof(DropDownList))
{
l.Text = (gv.Controls[i] as DropDownList).SelectedItem.Text;
gv.Controls.Remove(gv.Controls[i]);
gv.Controls.AddAt(i, l);
}
else if (gv.Controls[i].GetType() == typeof(CheckBox))
{
l.Text = (gv.Controls[i] as CheckBox).Checked? "True" : "False";
gv.Controls.Remove(gv.Controls[i]);
gv.Controls.AddAt(i, l);
}
if (gv.Controls[i].HasControls())
{
PrepareGridViewForExport(gv.Controls[i]);
}
}
Code Listing
Image: Page Design
![]()
Image : Sample in action
![]()
Image: Export to Excel button is clicked
![]()
Image: GridView contents exported to Excel
![]()
ExcelExport.aspx
<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeFile="ExportExcel.aspx.cs" Inherits="DeleteConfirm" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" >
<head runat="server">
<title>Contacts Listing</title>
</head>
<body>
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<div>
<strong><span style="font-size: small; font-family: Arial; text-decoration: underline">
Contacts Listing
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server" OnClick="Button1_Click" Text="Export To Excel" /></span></strong><br />
<br />
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" runat="server" AutoGenerateColumns="False" DataKeyNames="ContactID"
DataSourceID="SqlDataSource1" EmptyDataText="There are no data records to display." style="font-size: small; font-family: Arial" BackColor="White" BorderColor="#DEDFDE" BorderStyle="None" BorderWidth="1px" CellPadding="4" ForeColor="Black" GridLines="Vertical">
<Columns>
<asp:BoundField DataField="ContactID" HeaderText="ContactID" ReadOnly="True" SortExpression="ContactID" Visible="False" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="FName" HeaderText="First Name" SortExpression="FName" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="LName" HeaderText="Last Name" SortExpression="LName" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="ContactPhone" HeaderText="Phone" SortExpression="ContactPhone" />
<asp:TemplateField HeaderText="Favorites">
<ItemTemplate>
<asp:CheckBox ID="CheckBox1" runat="server" />
</ItemTemplate></asp:TemplateField>
</Columns>
<FooterStyle BackColor="#CCCC99" />
<RowStyle BackColor="#F7F7DE" />
<SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#CE5D5A" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
<PagerStyle BackColor="#F7F7DE" ForeColor="Black" HorizontalAlign="Right" />
<HeaderStyle BackColor="#6B696B" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
<AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" />
</asp:GridView>
<asp:SqlDataSource ID="SqlDataSource1" runat="server" ConnectionString="<%$ ConnectionStrings:ContactsConnectionString1 %>"
DeleteCommand="DELETE FROM [ContactPhone] WHERE [ContactID] = @ContactID" InsertCommand="INSERT INTO [ContactPhone] ([FName], [LName], [ContactPhone]) VALUES (@FName, @LName, @ContactPhone)"
ProviderName="<%$ ConnectionStrings:ContactsConnectionString1.ProviderName %>"
SelectCommand="SELECT [ContactID], [FName], [LName], [ContactPhone] FROM [ContactPhone]"
UpdateCommand="UPDATE [ContactPhone] SET [FName] = @FName, [LName] = @LName, [ContactPhone] = @ContactPhone WHERE [ContactID] = @ContactID">
<InsertParameters>
<asp:Parameter Name="FName" Type="String" />
<asp:Parameter Name="LName" Type="String" />
<asp:Parameter Name="ContactPhone" Type="String" />
</InsertParameters>
<UpdateParameters>
<asp:Parameter Name="FName" Type="String" />
<asp:Parameter Name="LName" Type="String" />
<asp:Parameter Name="ContactPhone" Type="String" />
<asp:Parameter Name="ContactID" Type="Int32" />
</UpdateParameters>
<DeleteParameters>
<asp:Parameter Name="ContactID" Type="Int32" />
</DeleteParameters>
</asp:SqlDataSource>
<br />
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>
ExcelExport.aspx.cs
using System;
using System.Data;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Collections;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.Security;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls.WebParts;
using System.Web.UI.HtmlControls;
using System.Text;
using System.IO;
public partial class DeleteConfirm : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
}
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Export the GridView to Excel
PrepareGridViewForExport(GridView1);
ExportGridView();
}
private void ExportGridView()
{
string attachment = "attachment; filename=Contacts.xls";
Response.ClearContent();
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", attachment);
Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
GridView1.RenderControl(htw);
Response.Write(sw.ToString());
Response.End();
}
public override void VerifyRenderingInServerForm(Control control)
{
}
private void PrepareGridViewForExport(Control gv)
{
LinkButton lb = new LinkButton();
Literal l = new Literal();
string name = String.Empty;
for (int i = 0; i < gv.Controls.Count; i++)
{
if (gv.Controls[i].GetType() == typeof(LinkButton))
{
l.Text = (gv.Controls[i] as LinkButton).Text;
gv.Controls.Remove(gv.Controls[i]);
gv.Controls.AddAt(i, l);
}
else if (gv.Controls[i].GetType() == typeof(DropDownList))
{
l.Text = (gv.Controls[i] as DropDownList).SelectedItem.Text;
gv.Controls.Remove(gv.Controls[i]);
gv.Controls.AddAt(i, l);
}
else if (gv.Controls[i].GetType() == typeof(CheckBox))
{
l.Text = (gv.Controls[i] as CheckBox).Checked ? "True" : "False";
gv.Controls.Remove(gv.Controls[i]);
gv.Controls.AddAt(i, l);
}
if (gv.Controls[i].HasControls())
{
PrepareGridViewForExport(gv.Controls[i]);
}
}
}
}
Implementation Options
In quite a few cases, developers face an error in the Export functionality - typically the error message is "RegisterForEventValidation can only be called during Render();".
Our website readers have contributed some good suggestions in the article comments below. I would particularly like to highlight the suggestion by Marianna, who provides an alternative implementation to the VerifyRenderingInServerForm override. This approach is described below:
- Step 1: Implement the Export functionality as described above.
- Step 2: Remove the code to override the VerifyRenderingInServerForm method.
- Step 3: Modify the code for the ExportGridView function as below. The code highlighted in green creates and HtmlForm on the fly, before exporting the gridview, adds the gridview to this new form and renders the form (instead of rendering the gridview in our original implementation)
private void ExportGridView()
{
string attachment = "attachment; filename=Contacts.xls";
Response.ClearContent();
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", attachment);
Response.ContentType = "application/ms-excel";
StringWriter sw = new StringWriter();
HtmlTextWriter htw = new HtmlTextWriter(sw);
// Create a form to contain the grid
HtmlForm frm = new HtmlForm();
GridView1.Parent.Controls.Add(frm);
frm.Attributes["runat"] = "server";
frm.Controls.Add(GridView1);
frm.RenderControl(htw);
//GridView1.RenderControl(htw);
Response.Write(sw.ToString());
Response.End();
}
This implementation has the advantage that it can be setup as re-usable code in a separate library, without having to override the base class method each time.
Note to readers
Thank you for your comments and feedback! Happy coding!!!
ASP.Net 2.0: Export GridView to Excel - Part II
This version of the article includes handling of the Hyperlink columns in the GridView export to Excel and also re-factors our original logic to use more general features of Reflection
Conclusion
In this article, we saw how to Export an ASP.Net 2.0 GridView to Excel. The code fragments are not linked to the backend structure and can be re-used across projects for the common functionality provided.
The focus of the article is the Export to Excel functionality - the Gridview and it's data binding are only for demonstrating the following functionality.
Disclaimer: This article is for purely educational purposes and is a compilation of notes, material and my understanding on this subject. Any resemblance to other material is an un-intentional coincidence and should not be misconstrued as malicious, slanderous, or any anything else hereof.