Export GridView Records to CSV Using ASP.Net C#

Vithal Wadje
Nov 13, 2014
59.2k
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Background

There is often a need in a project's reporting module to export Grid View records to CSV, So by considering that requirement I decided to write this article especially focusing on beginners and those who want to learn how to export a Grid View to CSV using ASP.NET C#.

Now before creating the application, let us create a table named employee in a database from where we show the records in a Grid View, the table has the following fields (shown in the following image):

I hope you have created the same type of table.

Now create the project as:

"Start" - "All Programs" - "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010".
"File" - "New Project" - "C#" - "Empty Project" (to avoid adding a master page).
Provide the Project name such as ExportGridRecordsToCSV or another as you wish and specify the location.
Then right-click on Solution Explorer and select "Add New Item" then select Default.aspx page.
One Button and a grid view.

Now the Default.aspx source code will be as follows:

<%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="ExPortGridviewToXML.Default" %>
<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html>
<head id="Head1" runat="server">
<title></title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="Silver">
<form id="form1" runat="server">
<br />
<h2 style="color: #808000; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bolder;">
Article by Vithal Wadje</h2>
<br />
<div>
<asp:GridView ID="GridView1" AutoGenerateColumns="false" runat="server" CellPadding="6"
ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None">
<AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" />
<EditRowStyle BackColor="#7C6F57" />
<FooterStyle BackColor="#1C5E55" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
<HeaderStyle BackColor="#1C5E55" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
<PagerStyle BackColor="#666666" ForeColor="White" HorizontalAlign="Center" />
<RowStyle BackColor="#E3EAEB" />
<SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#C5BBAF" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="#333333" />
<SortedAscendingCellStyle BackColor="#F8FAFA" />
<SortedAscendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#246B61" />
<SortedDescendingCellStyle BackColor="#D4DFE1" />
<SortedDescendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#15524A" />
<Columns>
<asp:BoundField DataField="id" HeaderText="id" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="Name" HeaderText="Name" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="City" HeaderText="City" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="Address" HeaderText="Address" />
<asp:BoundField DataField="Designation" HeaderText="Designation" />
</Columns>
</asp:GridView>
<br />
<asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server"
Text="Export" OnClick="Button1_Click" />
</div>
</form>
</body>
</html>

Now let us create a function to bind the records to the Grid View from the database. If you are a beginner and don't understand in detail how to bind a Grid View from a database then refer to my following article.

Inserting Form Data Into DataBase and Display In ASP.Net GridView

Now, for this article create the following function in the default.aspx.cs page to bind the Grid View:

private void Bindgrid()
{
connection();
query = "select *from Employee";//not recommended this i have written just for example,write stored procedure for security
com = new SqlCommand(query, con);
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, con);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
da.Fill(ds);
GridView1.DataSource = ds;
GridView1.DataBind();
con.Close();
}

Now, call the preceding function on page load as:

protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
Bindgrid();
}
}

Now create the following function to export the Grid View records to CSV:

private void ExportGridToCSV()
{
Bindgrid();
Response.Clear();
Response.Buffer = true;
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Vithal_Wadje.csv");
Response.Charset = "";
Response.ContentType = "application/text";
GridView1.AllowPaging = false;
GridView1.DataBind();
StringBuilder columnbind = new StringBuilder();
for (int k = 0; k < GridView1.Columns.Count; k++)
{
columnbind.Append(GridView1.Columns[k].HeaderText + ',');
}
columnbind.Append("\r\n");
for (int i = 0; i < GridView1.Rows.Count; i++)
{
for (int k = 0; k < GridView1.Columns.Count; k++)
{
columnbind.Append(GridView1.Rows[i].Cells[k].Text + ',');
}
columnbind.Append("\r\n");
}
Response.Output.Write(columnbind.ToString());
Response.Flush();
Response.End();
}

We have created the preceding function to export GridView Records to CSV. Now call the preceding function on the Export button click as:

protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ExportGridToCSV();
}

The entire code of the default.aspx page will look as follows:

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Data;
using System.Threading;
using System.Data.SqlClient;
using System.Configuration;
using System.Text;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
namespace ExPortGridviewToXML
{
public partial class Default : System.Web.UI.Page
{
private SqlConnection con;
private SqlCommand com;
private string constr, query;
private void connection()
{
constr = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["getconn"].ToString();
con = new SqlConnection(constr);
con.Open();
}
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsPostBack)
{
Bindgrid();
}
}
private void Bindgrid()
{
connection();
query = "select *from Employee";//not recommended this i have written just for example,write stored procedure for security
com = new SqlCommand(query, con);
SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, con);
DataSet ds = new DataSet();
da.Fill(ds);
GridView1.DataSource = ds;
GridView1.DataBind();
con.Close();
}
protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
ExportGridToCSV();
}
private void ExportGridToCSV()
{
Bindgrid();
Response.Clear();
Response.Buffer = true;
Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Vithal_Wadje.csv");
Response.Charset = "";
Response.ContentType = "application/text";
GridView1.AllowPaging = false;
GridView1.DataBind();
StringBuilder columnbind = new StringBuilder();
for (int k = 0; k < GridView1.Columns.Count; k++)
{
columnbind.Append(GridView1.Columns[k].HeaderText + ',');
}
columnbind.Append("\r\n");
for (int i = 0; i < GridView1.Rows.Count; i++)
{
for (int k = 0; k < GridView1.Columns.Count; k++)
{
columnbind.Append(GridView1.Rows[i].Cells[k].Text + ',');
}
columnbind.Append("\r\n");
}
Response.Output.Write(columnbind.ToString());
Response.Flush();
Response.End();
}
}
}

Now run the application and then we can see the following records in the Grid view:

Now click on the export button, the following Popup will appear:

Now click the OK button, the following records are exported to the CSV file:

Now you see that all the records of the Grid View are exported to CSV file.

Notes

Download the Zip file from the attachment for the full source code of the application.
Change the connection string in the web.config file to specify your server location.

Summary

I hope this article is useful for all readers, if you have any suggestion then please contact me including beginners also.