Scope

In this article we will show a sample to export data from a ListView to a CSV file. A CSV file can be opened in Excel, that is why I suggest it for exporting the data to Excel.

Introduction

In this sample we will show a sample to export data shown in ListView, to a CSV file.

Description

This sample could be called "Export to Excel", but it is not supported, the only way is to write the data in a CSV file that can be opened in Excel.

Here is the class diagram:



Here is the class for converting the data into a CSV file:

  1. public class CsvExport<T> where T : class
  2. {
  3. public IList<T> Objects;
  5. public CsvExport(IList<T> objects)
  6. {
  7. Objects = objects;
  8. }
  10. public string Export()
  11. {
  12. return Export(true);
  13. }
  15. public string Export(bool includeHeaderLine)
  16. {
  18. var sb = new StringBuilder();
  20. //Get properties using reflection.
  21. var propertyInfos = typeof(T).GetTypeInfo();
  23. if (includeHeaderLine)
  24. {
  25. //add header line.
  26. foreach (var propertyInfo in propertyInfos.DeclaredProperties)
  27. {
  28. sb.Append(propertyInfo.Name).Append(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ListSeparator);
  29. }
  30. sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1).AppendLine();
  31. }
  33. //add value for each property.
  34. foreach (T obj in Objects)
  35. {
  36. foreach (var propertyInfo in propertyInfos.DeclaredProperties)
  37. {
  38. sb.Append(MakeValueCsvFriendly(propertyInfo.GetValue(obj,null))).Append(System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ListSeparator);
  39. }
  40. sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1).AppendLine();
  41. }
  43. return sb.ToString();
  44. }
  46. //export to a file.
  47. public async void ExportToFile(string path)
  48. {
  49. var storageFolder = KnownFolders.DocumentsLibrary;
  50. var file = await storageFolder.CreateFileAsync(path, CreationCollisionOption.ReplaceExisting);
  51. await FileIO.WriteTextAsync(file, Export());
  52. }
  54. //export as binary data.
  55. public byte[] ExportToBytes()
  56. {
  57. return Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Export());
  58. }
  60. //get the csv value for field.
  61. private string MakeValueCsvFriendly(object value)
  62. {
  63. if (value == null) return "";
  65. if (value is DateTime)
  66. {
  67. if (((DateTime)value).TimeOfDay.TotalSeconds == 0)
  68. return ((DateTime)value).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");
  69. return ((DateTime)value).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
  70. }
  71. string output = value.ToString();
  73. if (output.Contains(",") || output.Contains("\""))
  74. output = '"' + output.Replace("\"", "\"\"") + '"';
  76. return output;
  78. }
  79. }

There is an important point in that class.

The ListSeparator that you have defined in:



Can be found programmatically using System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ListSeparator.

But is depends on the list of languages preferences:



If I choose English the ListSeparator is "," (comma) and for my Excel it is ";" (semicolon) because that is what I have in my regional settings.

If I choose Portugues then the ListSeparator is ";" (semicolon) and for my Excel it also is ";" (semicolon) and it works well.

Running the app



The myexportresult.csv file opened in Excel:



Source Code Files

  • BoardItem is my item that has Name, Value and Count properties
  • ConvertingToCSVFileViewModel: is my view model to connect data with the view (I use binding)
  • CsvExport is the class that convert the data into CSV file.

Source Code

The source code is available in MSDN Samples