ASP.NET Excel export encoding problem

Question

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 · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-06 07:04:00Z

134

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();

answered Nov 6, 2009 at 7:04

theSpyCry

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3 Comments

Chiramisu Over a year ago

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! :)

user441058 Over a year ago

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 Over a year ago

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. :-)

kͩeͣmͮpͥ ͩ · Accepted Answer · 2009-11-05 11:27:39Z

12

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.

answered Nov 5, 2009 at 11:27

kͩeͣmͮpͥ ͩ

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4 Comments

theSpyCry Over a year ago

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 a year ago

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

theSpyCry Over a year ago

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 ?

luke cross Over a year ago

YOU SAVE MY JOB! THANKS, THIS WORK PERFECTLY WITH WebApi (Asp.net WebApi return a IHttpAction result). Very thanks!!!!!!!

stealthyninja · Accepted Answer · 2012-10-30 10:01:46Z

11

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);

edited Oct 30, 2012 at 10:01

stealthyninja

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answered Jan 28, 2011 at 21:11

Franz

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Comments

calterras · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-07 08:43:17Z

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

answered Jan 7, 2015 at 8:43

calterras

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Comments

EdChum · Accepted Answer · 2012-12-31 01:08:25Z

2

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

edited Dec 31, 2012 at 1:08

EdChum

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answered Feb 3, 2010 at 11:21

chan

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1 Comment

EdChum Over a year ago

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

user2953513 · Accepted Answer · 2015-03-24 14:52:42Z

1

You can try to use "Server.HtmlDecode" to decode these words like "João"

protected void GridView1_RowCommand(object sender, GridViewCommandEventArgs e){
String wrong = "Jo&#227;o";
String corrected = Server.HtmlDecode(wrong);}

answered Mar 24, 2015 at 14:52

user2953513

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