7

I have the following function that exports an html to excel:

function generateexcel(tableid) {
  var table= document.getElementById(tableid);
  var html = table.outerHTML;
  window.open('data:application/vnd.ms-excel,' + encodeURIComponent(html));
}

One problem is that the especial characters in the data are transformed to other symbols:

  • 1º = 1º
  • é = é

How would you fix this? Is there any character replace to the html to prevent it? Any encoding option?

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2
  • Have you tried adding an explicit encoding declaration to the media type? data:application/vnd.ms-excel;charset=UTF-8 Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 14:07
  • Yep it was one of the solutions i found and tried before asking here, it didnt work with the different charsets i tried... Details here: weblogism.com/item/270/why-does-e-become-a and weblogism.com/item/271/why-does-e-become-a-ii Commented Jun 18, 2012 at 15:17

5 Answers 5

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9

Replacing chars is a poor solution.

I replaced encodeURIComponent for escape and works fine, but escape is deprecated since ECMAScript v3.

This issue occurs because encodeURIComponent works with UTF-8 and Excel does not.

Better way for me.

Encode data to base64 and export like this. I used jquery-base64 plugin from https://github.com/carlo/jquery-base64/blob/master/jquery.base64.min.js

And change code to:

window.open('data:application/vnd.ms-excel;base64,' + $.base64.encode(html));

If you don't want to use jquery, you can use this base64_encode function http://phpjs.org/functions/base64_encode

"Base64 encoding/decoding is already a native function in modern(tm) browsers: btoa(str) and atob(str) are the functions that should can be used without any external reimplementation." - chipairon

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4 Comments

Its a good idea, if you could add a direct EncodetoBase64() function to your response for the people that dont want to use extra plugins like jquery i will grant the response to you
Base64 encoding/decoding is already a native function in modern(tm) browsers: btoa(str) and atob(str) are the functions that should can be used without any external reimplementation. Take a look at developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/…
I set your answer as the correct one as promised, but if you could add the native function option contributed by @chipairon to the answer for other people to see it would be great ^^
And how do you name your file?
4

Solved adding a replace for the problematic symbols:

function generateexcel(tableid) {
  var table= document.getElementById(tableid);
  var html = table.outerHTML;

  //add more symbols if needed...
  while (html.indexOf('á') != -1) html = html.replace('á', 'á');
  while (html.indexOf('é') != -1) html = html.replace('é', 'é');
  while (html.indexOf('í') != -1) html = html.replace('í', 'í');
  while (html.indexOf('ó') != -1) html = html.replace('ó', 'ó');
  while (html.indexOf('ú') != -1) html = html.replace('ú', 'ú');
  while (html.indexOf('º') != -1) html = html.replace('º', 'º');

  window.open('data:application/vnd.ms-excel,' + encodeURIComponent(html));
}
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3 Comments

Simpler (prob. faster too): html = html.replace(/á/g, '$aacute;'); etc. - the "g" after the regex makes it perform the substitution throughout the string, so you don't need the while loop.
@Pointy It works but the replace would be html = html.replace(/á/g, 'á'); not $, if you put it as an answer i will accept it
I think it is a poor solution, we have so much symbols to replace all. I replaced encodeURIComponent for escape and works fine.
3

I have the same issue, just replace encodeURIComponent for escape.

function generateexcel(tableid) {
 var table= document.getElementById(tableid);
 var html = table.outerHTML;
 window.open('data:application/vnd.ms-excel,' + escape(html));
}

It works for me...

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1 Comment

As Pedro Muniz said, escape is being deprecated. It is preferable to use base64 encoding.
2

Just replace encodeURIComponent with escape.

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1

In my case I use generateexcel function previously posted, just adding Capital letters of special characters in order to make it work

    function generateexcel(tableid) {
      var table= document.getElementById(tableid);
      var html = table.outerHTML;
      while (html.indexOf('á') != -1) html = html.replace('á', 'á');
      while (html.indexOf('Á') != -1) html = html.replace('Á', 'Á');
      while (html.indexOf('é') != -1) html = html.replace('é', 'é');
      while (html.indexOf('É') != -1) html = html.replace('É', 'É');
      while (html.indexOf('í') != -1) html = html.replace('í', 'í');
      while (html.indexOf('Í') != -1) html = html.replace('Í', 'Í');
      while (html.indexOf('ó') != -1) html = html.replace('ó', 'ó');
      while (html.indexOf('Ó') != -1) html = html.replace('Ó', 'Ó');
      while (html.indexOf('ú') != -1) html = html.replace('ú', 'ú');
      while (html.indexOf('Ú') != -1) html = html.replace('Ú', 'Ú');
      while (html.indexOf('º') != -1) html = html.replace('º', 'º');
      while (html.indexOf('ñ') != -1) html = html.replace('ñ', 'ñ'); 
      while (html.indexOf('Ñ') != -1) html = html.replace('Ñ', 'Ñ');  

  window.open('data:application/vnd.ms-excel,' + encodeURIComponent(html));
}

Hope it helps...

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