Question

I’m using this function to export a data table into excel.

  protected void ExportExcel(System.Data.DataTable dt) 
    { 
         if (dt == null||dt.Rows.Count==0) return; 
         Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application xlApp = 
new Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Application(); 

 if (xlApp == null) 
 { 
     return; 
 } 
 System.Globalization.CultureInfo CurrentCI = 
System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture; 
 System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = 
    new System.Globalization.CultureInfo("en-US"); 
 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbooks workbooks = xlApp.Workbooks; 
 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Workbook workbook = 
 workbooks.Add(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.XlWBATemplate.xlWBATWorksheet); 
 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet worksheet = 
(Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Worksheet)workbook.Worksheets[1]; 
 Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range range; 
 long totalCount = dt.Rows.Count; 
 long rowRead = 0; 
 float percent = 0; 
 for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++) 
 { 
     worksheet.Cells[1, i + 1] = dt.Columns[i].ColumnName; 
     range = (Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range)worksheet.Cells[1, i + 1]; 
     range.Interior.ColorIndex = 15; 
     range.Font.Bold = true; 

 } 

 for (int r = 0; r < dt.Rows.Count; r++) 
 { 
     for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++) 
     { 
         worksheet.Cells[r + 2, i + 1] = dt.Rows[r][i].ToString(); 
     } 
     rowRead++; 
     percent = ((float)(100 * rowRead)) / totalCount; 
 }

 xlApp.Visible = true;
}

As you can see in the resulting excel image, the columns are not properly formatted i.e., the column sizes do not adapt to the databound items. How will I make the excel cells auto-adjust according to the data table?

And I also would like to add some text, maybe a header, for say maybe “System.DateTime.Now” or “data table name”. How do i do this?

Answer 1

You should be able to format the columns like so:

Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range columns = worksheet.UsedRange.Columns;
columns.AutoFit();

You can insert a new row and place the current date as the title like so:

worksheet.Rows[1].Insert();
Excel.Range newRow = worksheet.Rows[1];
Excel.Range newCell = newRow.Cells[1];
newCell.Value = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");

Also add this to your using statements so you don’t need to use the fully qualified name every time you use an Excel object:

using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;

Also, I have tidied up your method, by adding a few using statements to reduce clutter, removing some unnecessary casting and an unnesscessary check for null on the application object, just after it had been assigned:

using Excel = Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel;
using System.Globalization;
using System.Threading;
using System.Data;

protected void ExportExcel(DataTable dt)
{
    if (dt == null || dt.Rows.Count == 0) return;

    var xlApp = new Excel.Application();
    //Is this used?
    CultureInfo CurrentCI = Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;

    Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture = new CultureInfo("en-US");

    Excel.Workbooks workbooks = xlApp.Workbooks;

    Excel.Range range

    Excel.Workbook workbook = workbooks.Add();
    Excel.Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[1];

    long totalCount = dt.Rows.Count;
    long rowRead = 0;
    float percent = 0;

    for (var i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++)
    {
        worksheet.Cells[1, i + 1] = dt.Columns[i].ColumnName;

        range = worksheet.Cells[1, i + 1];
        range.Interior.ColorIndex = 15;
        range.Font.Bold = true;
    }

    for (var r = 0; r < dt.Rows.Count; r++)
    {
        for (var i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++)
        {
            worksheet.Cells[r + 2, i + 1] = dt.Rows[r][i].ToString();
        }

        rowRead++;

        //is this used?
        percent = ((float)(100 * rowRead)) / totalCount;
    }    

    Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range columns = worksheet.UsedRange.Columns;
    columns.AutoFit();

    worksheet.Rows[1].Insert();
    Excel.Range newRow = worksheet.Rows[1];
    Excel.Range newCell = newRow.Cells[1];
    newCell.Value = DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");

    xlApp.Visible = true;
}