Adding Custom header to the excel file

Question

Is it possible to add a custom header to the Excel while exporting a DataSet to Excel in ASP.NET? I have one requirement like this. I can export the DataSet to the Excel successfully. But I can't add the custom header. Please help me if anybody have the solution. Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

IF you are using Response.Write to Export the Excel. You can use the following code with minimal effort and the Header can be customized as you want, just like HTML headers.

Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel";
Response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=test.xls;");                
StringWriter stringWrite = new StringWriter();        
HtmlTextWriter htmlWrite = new HtmlTextWriter(stringWrite);        
dgrExport.DataSource = dtExport;        
dgrExport.DataBind();
dgrExport.RenderControl(htmlWrite);
string headerTable = @"<Table><tr><td>Report Header</td></tr><tr><td><img src=""D:\\Folder\\Report Header.jpg"" \></td></tr></Table>";
Response.Write(headerTable);
Response.Write(stringWrite.ToString());        
Response.End();

Mac, Are you looking for the same?

Answer 2

I got a little treat for you. This is a full blown Excel handler I wrote after lots of studying of Excel Interop. Look at the line "dataGridView1 = YOUR_DATATABLE_HERE;" I know it says dataGridView, it's DataTable, just FYI. Feed it that and you are golden. Of course you would need to convert a dataset to DataTable, but that's another question. Simply put, you can copy and paste this code, and all you have to change is the YOUR_DATATABLE_HERE variable with an actual DataTable and that thing will do the rest. There are lots of commented out sections. Uncomment them as needed. They should be self explanatory. Oh FYI... if your PageSetup does not work properly, that's a headache. It could be anything from you need to add a printer to some really fancy stuff, however it's host computer dependant, not code dependant. If that ends up crashing you, please comment out that section.

Notice the "#region Column Headers" part of the code. Here you can change the headers. In my code I simply pull them from the table but you can customize them. Let me know if you need help with that portion, but again, it should be self explanatory. I know this is a huge chunk of code, but the nice thing is, it's practically ready to go as-is. All you have to do is throw it in your project, feed it a DataTable, maybe add some resources (i.e. anything that's underlined red, just right click it and choose resolve), and you should be set to go for Excel anything. Good luck to you!

#region Excel Interop Object Private Methods
private void ExportToExcel()
{
    #region Initialize Variables
    DataTable dataGridView1 = new DataTable();

    //Load source
    dataGridView1 = YOUR_DATATABLE_HERE;

    //Declare Excel Interop variables
    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application xlApp;
    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook xlWorkBook;
    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet xlWorkSheet;
    object misValue = System.Reflection.Missing.Value;

    //Initialize variables
    xlApp = new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.ApplicationClass();
    xlWorkBook = xlApp.Workbooks.Add(misValue);
    xlWorkSheet = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet)xlWorkBook.Worksheets.get_Item(1);
    #endregion

    #region Title
    //Add a title
    xlWorkSheet.Cells[1, 1] = "Your title here";

    //Span the title across columns A through H
    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range titleRange = xlApp.get_Range(xlWorkSheet.Cells[1, "A"], xlWorkSheet.Cells[1, "F"]);
    titleRange.Merge(Type.Missing);

    //Center the title horizontally then vertically at the above defined range
    titleRange.HorizontalAlignment = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlHAlign.xlHAlignCenter;
    titleRange.VerticalAlignment = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlVAlign.xlVAlignCenter;

    //Increase the font-size of the title
    titleRange.Font.Size = 16;

    //Make the title bold
    titleRange.Font.Bold = true;

    //Give the title background color
    titleRange.Interior.Color = System.Drawing.ColorTranslator.ToOle(System.Drawing.Color.White);

    //Set the title row height
    titleRange.RowHeight = 50;
    #endregion

    #region Column Headers
    //Populate headers, assume row[0] contains the title and row[1] contains all the headers
    int iCol = 0;
    foreach (DataColumn c in dataGridView1.Columns)
    {
        iCol++;
        xlWorkSheet.Cells[2, iCol] = dgResults.Columns[iCol - 1].HeaderText;
    }

    //Populate rest of the data. Start at row[2] since row[1] contains title and row[0] contains headers
    int iRow = 2; //We start at row 2
    foreach (DataRow r in dataGridView1.Rows)
    {
        iRow++;
        iCol = 0;
        foreach (DataColumn c in dataGridView1.Columns)
        {
            iCol++;
            xlWorkSheet.Cells[iRow, iCol] = r[c.ColumnName];
        }
    }

    //Select the header row (row 2 aka row[1])
    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range headerRange = xlApp.get_Range(xlWorkSheet.Cells[2, "A"], xlWorkSheet.Cells[2, "F"]);

    //Set the header row fonts bold
    headerRange.Font.Bold = true;

    //Center the header row horizontally
    headerRange.HorizontalAlignment = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlHAlign.xlHAlignCenter;

    //Put a border around the header row
    headerRange.BorderAround(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlLineStyle.xlContinuous,
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlBorderWeight.xlMedium,
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlColorIndex.xlColorIndexAutomatic,
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlColorIndex.xlColorIndexAutomatic);

    //Give the header row background color
    headerRange.Interior.Color = System.Drawing.ColorTranslator.ToOle(System.Drawing.Color.MediumPurple);
    #endregion

    #region Page Setup
    //Set page orientation to landscape
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.Orientation = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlPageOrientation.xlLandscape;

    //Set margins
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.TopMargin = 0;
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.RightMargin = 0;
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.BottomMargin = 30;
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.LeftMargin = 0;

    //Set Header and Footer (see code list below)
    //&P - the current page number.
    //&N - the total number of pages.
    //&B - use a bold font*.
    //&I - use an italic font*.
    //&U - use an underline font*.
    //&& - the '&' character.
    //&D - the current date.
    //&T - the current time.
    //&F - workbook name.
    //&A - worksheet name.
    //&"FontName" - use the specified font name*.
    //&N - use the specified font size*.
    //EXAMPLE: xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.RightFooter = "&F"
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.RightHeader = "";
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.CenterHeader = "";
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.LeftHeader = "";
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.RightFooter = "";
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.CenterFooter = "Page &P of &N";
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.LeftFooter = "";

    //Set gridlines
    xlWorkBook.Windows[1].DisplayGridlines = true;
    xlWorkSheet.PageSetup.PrintGridlines = true;
    #endregion

    #region Worksheet Style
    /* 
    //Color every other column but skip top two
    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range workSheetMinusHeader = xlApp.get_Range("A1", "F1");
    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.FormatCondition format =
        (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.FormatCondition)workSheetMinusHeader.EntireColumn.FormatConditions.Add(
            Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlFormatConditionType.xlExpression,
            Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlFormatConditionOperator.xlEqual,
            "=IF(ROW()<3,,MOD(ROW(),2)=0)");
    format.Interior.Color = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlRgbColor.rgbWhiteSmoke;

    //Put a border around the entire work sheet
    workSheetMinusHeader.EntireColumn.BorderAround(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlLineStyle.xlContinuous,
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlBorderWeight.xlMedium,
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlColorIndex.xlColorIndexAutomatic,
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlColorIndex.xlColorIndexAutomatic);
    */
    #endregion

    #region Specific Width, Height, Wrappings, and Format Types
    //Set the font size and text wrap of columns for the entire worksheet
    string[] strColumns = new string[] { "A", "B", "C", "D", "E", "F" };
    foreach (string s in strColumns)
    {
        ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Columns[s, Type.Missing]).Font.Size = 12;
        ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Columns[s, Type.Missing]).WrapText = true;
    }

    //Set Width of individual columns
    ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Columns["A", Type.Missing]).ColumnWidth = 7.00;
    ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Columns["B", Type.Missing]).ColumnWidth = 18.00;
    ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Columns["C", Type.Missing]).ColumnWidth = 18.00;
    ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Columns["D", Type.Missing]).ColumnWidth = 30.00;
    ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Columns["E", Type.Missing]).ColumnWidth = 40.00;
    ((Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Columns["F", Type.Missing]).ColumnWidth = 15.00;

    //Select everything except title row (first row) and set row height for the selected rows
    //xlWorkSheet.Range["a2", xlWorkSheet.Range["a2"].End[Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlDirection.xlDown].End[Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlDirection.xlToRight]].RowHeight = 45;

    //Format date columns
    //string[] dateColumns = new string[] { "N", "O", "P", "Q" };
    string[] dateColumns = new string[] { };
    foreach (string thisColumn in dateColumns)
    {
        Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range rg = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Cells[1, thisColumn];
        rg.EntireColumn.NumberFormat = "MM/DD/YY";
    }

    //Format ID column and prevent long numbers from showing up as scientific notation
    //Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range idRange = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Cells[1, "C"];
    //idRange.EntireColumn.NumberFormat = "#";

    //Format Social Security Numbers so that Excel does not drop the leading zeros
    //Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range idRange = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)xlWorkSheet.Cells[1, "C"];
    //idRange.EntireColumn.NumberFormat = "000000000";
    #endregion

    #region Save & Quit
    //Save and quit, use SaveCopyAs since SaveAs does not always work
    string fileName = Server.MapPath("~/YourFileNameHere.xls");
    xlApp.DisplayAlerts = false; //Supress overwrite request
    xlWorkBook.SaveAs(fileName, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlFileFormat.xlWorkbookNormal, misValue, misValue, misValue, misValue, Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlSaveAsAccessMode.xlExclusive, misValue, misValue, misValue, misValue, misValue);
    xlWorkBook.Close(true, misValue, misValue);
    xlApp.Quit();

    //Release objects
    releaseObject(xlWorkSheet);
    releaseObject(xlWorkBook);
    releaseObject(xlApp);

    //Give the user the option to save the copy of the file anywhere they desire
    String FilePath = Server.MapPath("~/YourFileNameHere.xls");
    System.Web.HttpResponse response = System.Web.HttpContext.Current.Response;
    response.ClearContent();
    response.Clear();
    response.ContentType = "text/plain";
    response.AddHeader("Content-Disposition", "attachment; filename=YourFileNameHere-" + DateTime.Now.ToShortDateString() + ".xls;");
    response.TransmitFile(FilePath);
    response.Flush();
    response.Close();

    //Delete the temporary file
    DeleteFile(fileName);
    #endregion
}

private void DeleteFile(string fileName)
{
    if (File.Exists(fileName))
    {
        try
        {
            File.Delete(fileName);
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            //Could not delete the file, wait and try again
            try
            {
                System.GC.Collect();
                System.GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
                File.Delete(fileName);
            }
            catch
            {
                //Could not delete the file still
            }
        }
    }
}

private void releaseObject(object obj)
{
    try
    {
        System.Runtime.InteropServices.Marshal.ReleaseComObject(obj);
        obj = null;
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        obj = null;
        Response.Write("Exception Occured while releasing object " + ex.ToString());
    }
    finally
    {
        GC.Collect();
    }
}
#endregion