CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javascriptc#.netexport-to-csvline-breaks
nwhaught
nwhaught

Reputation: 1592

\r\n characters in CSV file not treated as line breaks

Apologies for what is surely a bonehead question... I am trying to create a CSV file that looks like this:

Header1,Header2,Header3, "Value1","Value2","Value3"

Instead, I'm getting a CSV file that looks like this: Header1,Header2,Header3,\r\n"Value1","Value2","Value3"

How do I get my CRLF characters to actually produce line breaks in my output?

What I'm doing is making an ajax call to a WebMethod that generates a datatable from a stored proc. That datatable is then parsed out to a CSV like so:

if (!createHeaders)//I deal with the headers elsewhere in the code
{
    foreach(DataColumn col in table.Columns){

        result += col.ColumnName + ",";
    };
    result += Environment.NewLine;
}

for (int rowNum = 0; rowNum < table.Rows.Count; rowNum++) 
{
    for (int colNum = 0; colNum < table.Columns.Count; colNum++)
    {
        result += "\"" + (table.Rows[rowNum][colNum]).ToString();
        result += "\",";
    };
    result += Environment.NewLine;
};
return result;
}

That string is then passed back to the success function of the ajax query, where it undergoes a few more transformations...

function getExportFile(sType) {
    var alertType = null
    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",      
        url: "./Services/DataLookups.asmx/getExcelExport",
        data: JSON.stringify({ sType: sType }),
        processData: false,
        contentType: "application/json; charset=utf-8",
        dataType: "text",
        success: function (response) {                
            response = replaceAll(response,"\\\"", "\"")
            response = response.replace("{\"d\":\"", "")
            response = response.replace("\"}", "")
            download(sType + ".csv",response)
        }
    });

    function download(filename, text) {
        var element = document.createElement('a');
        element.setAttribute('href', 'data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,' + encodeURIComponent(text));
        element.setAttribute('download', filename);
        element.style.display = 'none';
        document.body.appendChild(element);
        element.click()
        document.body.removeChild(element);
    }

    function escapeRegExp(str) {
        return str.replace(/([.*+?^=!:${}()|\[\]\/\\])/g, "\\$1");
    }

    function replaceAll(str, find, replace) {
        return str.replace(new RegExp(escapeRegExp(find), 'g'), replace);
    }

In my debugging before the string is passed back to javascript, if I just type ?response, I get the incorrect, all-on-one-line response. However, when I type ?resonse,nq the linebreaks are recognized, and everything looks the way it should.

Also, I'm sure there is PLENTY that I'm doing wrong/stupidly here. Pointing out those instances is also appreciated.

Upvotes: 2

Views: 7483

Answers (2)

nwhaught
nwhaught

Reputation: 1592

@AryKay's answer surely helped, but there was one additional issue. The string returned by the Ajax call had the\r\ns escaped into literals. Ran a

Response = response.replace (/\\r\\n/g, "\r\n")

Before passing to encodeURIComponent and it ran like a charm.

Upvotes: 1

AryKay
AryKay

Reputation: 308

Your header should have data:Application/octet-stream, as MIME-type instead of data:text/plain;charset=utf-8,, the reason being that as per HTTP specifications, when the content type is unknown, the recipient should treat it as type application/octet-stream.

Since you are already using the encodeURIComponent(), that seems to be the only issue remaining.

Upvotes: 1

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