Gridvew Export to Excel Formatting

[schwarem]

I am exporting a gridview to excel. I have a column of ID numbers that are 1.1, 1.2, 1.3, 2.1, 2.2, etc. When it gets up to 1.10 or 2.20, it drops off the zero in excel, because it thinks it is a number not a string. How do I prevent this from happening?

 

[dvannoy]

you need to make sure your decimal's are set correctly in your DB. what DB are you using?

 

[schwarem]

It is set as a string in the database, because it contains both characters and numbers. Some numbers are G.1, G.2, etc. Others are 1.1, 1.2 etc.

 

[ca8msm]

The best way to get Excel to render your data as you want it to is to write the data out in HTML formatting. You can then have complete control over the output and apply any styles you want. For example, here's a method on how to add formulas to an outputted excel file:

http://jasonhaley.com/blog/archive/2004/03/20/9583.aspx

For your problem, if you save an excel file as a html document and set the formatting rules before you save it, you will be able to see what you must output to the Response stream for it to save correctly.


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[schwarem]

Here is the code I am using to export the gridview to Excel.

If gvResults.Rows.Count > 0 Then

                gvResults.AllowPaging = False
                gvResults.AllowSorting = False
                gvResults.Columns(0).Visible = False
                PopulateSearch("DateEntered DESC")
                Dim tw As New StringWriter()
                Dim hw As New System.Web.UI.HtmlTextWriter(tw)
                Dim frm As HtmlForm = New HtmlForm()
                Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
                Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Export.xls")
                Response.Charset = ""
                EnableViewState = False
                Controls.Add(frm)
                frm.Controls.Add(gvResults)
                frm.RenderControl(hw)
                Response.Write(tw.ToString())
                Response.End()
                gvResults.AllowPaging = True
                gvResults.AllowSorting = True
                gvResults.Columns(0).Visible = True
                PopulateSearch("DateEntered DESC")
            End If