Background

There is often a need in a project's reporting module to export Grid View records to text, 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 text 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:
  1. "Start" - "All Programs" - "Microsoft Visual Studio 2010".

  2. "File" - "New Project" - "C#" - "Empty Project" (to avoid adding a master page).

  3. Provide the Project name such as ExportGridRecordsToText or another as you wish and specify the location.

  4. Then right-click on Solution Explorer and select "Add New Item" then select Default.aspx page.

  5. One Button and a grid view.
Now the Default.aspx source code will be as follows:
  1. <%@ Page Language="C#" AutoEventWireup="true" CodeBehind="Default.aspx.cs" Inherits="ExPortGridviewToText.Default" %>
  3. <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
  4. <html>
  5. <head id="Head1" runat="server">
  6. <title></title>
  7. </head>
  8. <body bgcolor="Silver">
  9. <form id="form1" runat="server">
  10. <br />
  11. <h2 style="color: #808000; font-size: x-large; font-weight: bolder;">
  12. Article by Vithal Wadje</h2>
  13. <br />
  14. <div>
  15. <asp:GridView ID="GridView1" AutoGenerateColumns="false" runat="server" CellPadding="6"
  16. ForeColor="#333333" GridLines="None">
  17. <AlternatingRowStyle BackColor="White" />
  18. <EditRowStyle BackColor="#7C6F57" />
  19. <FooterStyle BackColor="#1C5E55" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
  20. <HeaderStyle BackColor="#1C5E55" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="White" />
  21. <PagerStyle BackColor="#666666" ForeColor="White" HorizontalAlign="Center" />
  22. <RowStyle BackColor="#E3EAEB" />
  23. <SelectedRowStyle BackColor="#C5BBAF" Font-Bold="True" ForeColor="#333333" />
  24. <SortedAscendingCellStyle BackColor="#F8FAFA" />
  25. <SortedAscendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#246B61" />
  26. <SortedDescendingCellStyle BackColor="#D4DFE1" />
  27. <SortedDescendingHeaderStyle BackColor="#15524A" />
  28. <Columns>
  29. <asp:BoundField DataField="id" HeaderText="id" />
  30. <asp:BoundField DataField="Name" HeaderText="Name" />
  31. <asp:BoundField DataField="City" HeaderText="City" />
  32. <asp:BoundField DataField="Address" HeaderText="Address" />
  33. <asp:BoundField DataField="Designation" HeaderText="Designation" />
  34. </Columns>
  35. </asp:GridView>
  36. <br />
  37. <asp:Button ID="Button1" runat="server"
  38. Text="Export To Text" OnClick="Button1_Click" />
  39. </div>
  40. </form>
  41. </body>
  42. </html>

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.

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

  1. private void Bindgrid()
  2. {
  3. connection();
  4. query = "select *from Employee";//not recommended this i have written just for example,write stored procedure for security
  5. com = new SqlCommand(query, con);
  6. SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, con);
  7. DataSet ds = new DataSet();
  8. da.Fill(ds);
  9. GridView1.DataSource = ds;
  10. GridView1.DataBind();
  11. con.Close();
  12. }
Now, call the preceding function on page load as:
  1. protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  2. {
  3. if (!IsPostBack)
  4. {
  5. Bindgrid();
  7. }
  8. }
Now create the following function to export the Grid View records to Text:
  1. private void ExportGridToText()
  2. {
  3. Bindgrid();
  4. Response.Clear();
  5. Response.Buffer = true;
  6. Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Vithal_Wadje.txt");
  7. Response.Charset = "";
  8. Response.ContentType = "application/text";
  9. GridView1.AllowPaging = false;
  10. GridView1.DataBind();
  11. StringBuilder Rowbind = new StringBuilder();
  12. for (int k = 0; k < GridView1.Columns.Count; k++)
  13. {
  14. Rowbind.Append(GridView1.Columns[k].HeaderText + ' ');
  15. }
  16. Rowbind.Append("\r\n");
  17. for (int i = 0; i < GridView1.Rows.Count; i++)
  18. {
  19. for (int k = 0; k < GridView1.Columns.Count; k++)
  20. {
  21. Rowbind.Append(GridView1.Rows[i].Cells[k].Text + ' ');
  22. }
  23. Rowbind.Append("\r\n");
  24. }
  25. Response.Output.Write(Rowbind.ToString());
  26. Response.Flush();
  27. Response.End();
  28. }
We have created the preceding function to export GridView records to text. Now call the preceding function on the Export Text button click as:
  1. protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
  2. {
  3. ExportGridToText();
  4. }
The entire code of the default.aspx page will look as follows:
  1. using System;
  2. using System.IO;
  3. using System.Data;
  4. using System.Threading;
  5. using System.Data.SqlClient;
  6. using System.Configuration;
  7. using System.Text;
  8. using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
  10. namespace ExPortGridviewToText
  11. {
  12. public partial class Default : System.Web.UI.Page
  13. {
  14. private SqlConnection con;
  15. private SqlCommand com;
  16. private string constr, query;
  17. private void connection()
  18. {
  19. constr = ConfigurationManager.ConnectionStrings["getconn"].ToString();
  20. con = new SqlConnection(constr);
  21. con.Open();
  23. }
  24. protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
  25. {
  26. if (!IsPostBack)
  27. {
  28. Bindgrid();
  30. }
  31. }
  32. private void Bindgrid()
  33. {
  34. connection();
  35. query = "select *from Employee";//not recommended this i have written just for example,write stored procedure for security
  36. com = new SqlCommand(query, con);
  37. SqlDataAdapter da = new SqlDataAdapter(query, con);
  38. DataSet ds = new DataSet();
  39. da.Fill(ds);
  40. GridView1.DataSource = ds;
  41. GridView1.DataBind();
  42. con.Close();
  44. }
  46. protected void Button1_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
  47. {
  49. ExportGridToText();
  51. }
  52. private void ExportGridToText()
  53. {
  54. Bindgrid();
  55. Response.Clear();
  56. Response.Buffer = true;
  57. Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=Vithal_Wadje.txt");
  58. Response.Charset = "";
  59. Response.ContentType = "application/text";
  60. GridView1.AllowPaging = false;
  61. GridView1.DataBind();
  63. StringBuilder Rowbind = new StringBuilder();
  64. for (int k = 0; k < GridView1.Columns.Count; k++)
  65. {
  67. Rowbind.Append(GridView1.Columns[k].HeaderText + ' ');
  68. }
  70. Rowbind.Append("\r\n");
  71. for (int i = 0; i < GridView1.Rows.Count; i++)
  72. {
  73. for (int k = 0; k < GridView1.Columns.Count; k++)
  74. {
  76. Rowbind.Append(GridView1.Rows[i].Cells[k].Text + ' ');
  77. }
  79. Rowbind.Append("\r\n");
  80. }
  81. Response.Output.Write(Rowbind.ToString());
  82. Response.Flush();
  83. Response.End();
  85. }
  86. }
  87. }
Now run the application and then we can see the following records in the Grid view:
Now click on the export text button, the following popup will appear:
Now click the OK button, the following records are exported to the Text file:
Now you see that all the records of the Grid View are exported to the text 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.