Guys I have the following scenario hope anyone can help me with:
custom inquiry pages that generate a sql script, and afterwards i send the script to a page that reads the script, creates the dataset, binds it to a gridview, and exports it to an excel sheet, the data contains some Arabic characters, and when viewing in the gridview it self everything seems fine, but when exporting to excel, all the Arabic data is shown as a garbage! the data is stored in a NVarchar fields and i checked it in my database. I tried changing fonts but it did not work, my only explanation is that I must export to excel using Unicode. so how can I do that?

The following is the code I use in exporting to excel:

************************************************** *******
           Response.Clear()Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=" & strReportName & ".xls")
            Response.Charset = ""
            Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.xls"

            Dim stringWrite As New System.IO.StringWriter()
            Dim htmlWrite As New HtmlTextWriter(stringWrite)

            GridView1.RenderControl(htmlWrite)

            Response.Write(stringWrite.ToString())
            Response.End()
************************************************** *********

Nothing is impossible. The impossible only takes longer. "Digital Fortress, Dan Brown"

__________________
Nothing is impossible. The impossible only takes longer. \"Digital Fortress, Dan Brown\"

Guys I really need an answer here..... i can't find anything online and I tried everything!!





Nothing is impossible. The impossible only takes longer. "Digital Fortress, Dan Brown"

I have no experience working with Arabic characters so I can not give you any first hand advice, however this guys blog post looked promising:

http://moustafa-arafa.blogspot.com/2...t-data-to.html

Make sure to read his last comment in his blog comments about his response from the VS Team.

hth.

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tnx a lot man, I viewed the site and I'll try it now

Nothing is impossible. The impossible only takes longer. "Digital Fortress, Dan Brown"

Ok after reading the post, I updated my code to :

************************************************** **********
           Response.Clear()
            Response.Buffer = True
            Response.Charset = "" 'You can set UTF-8 or windows-1256 but this will not solve
            Response.AddHeader("content-disposition", "attachment;filename=" & strReportName & ".xls")
            Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
            Me.EnableViewState = False
            Dim stringWrite As New System.IO.StringWriter()
            Dim htmlWrite As New HtmlTextWriter(stringWrite)

            GridView1.RenderControl(htmlWrite)


            'Response.OutputStream.Write(byte(){0xef, 0xbb, 0xbf}, 0, 3)
            Response.OutputStream.Write(New Byte() {239, 187, 191}, 0, 3)

            Response.Write(stringWrite.ToString())
            Response.Flush()
            HttpContext.Current.ApplicationInstance.CompleteRe quest()
************************************************** **********

but this code solved my problem in office 2003, but I still have a problem with the office 2000 :s

guys any suggestions?




Nothing is impossible. The impossible only takes longer. "Digital Fortress, Dan Brown"