[javascript] Export javascript data to CSV file without server interaction

There's always the HTML5 download attribute :

This attribute, if present, indicates that the author intends the hyperlink to be used for downloading a resource so that when the user clicks on the link they will be prompted to save it as a local file.

If the attribute has a value, the value will be used as the pre-filled file name in the Save prompt that opens when the user clicks on the link.

var A = [['n','sqrt(n)']];

for(var j=1; j<10; ++j){ 
    A.push([j, Math.sqrt(j)]);
}

var csvRows = [];

for(var i=0, l=A.length; i<l; ++i){
    csvRows.push(A[i].join(','));
}

var csvString = csvRows.join("%0A");
var a         = document.createElement('a');
a.href        = 'data:attachment/csv,' +  encodeURIComponent(csvString);
a.target      = '_blank';
a.download    = 'myFile.csv';

document.body.appendChild(a);
a.click();

FIDDLE

Tested in Chrome and Firefox, works fine in the newest versions (as of July 2013).
Works in Opera as well, but does not set the filename (as of July 2013).
Does not seem to work in IE9 (big suprise) (as of July 2013).

An overview over what browsers support the download attribute can be found Here
For non-supporting browsers, one has to set the appropriate headers on the serverside.


Apparently there is a hack for IE10 and IE11, which doesn't support the download attribute (Edge does however).

var A = [['n','sqrt(n)']];

for(var j=1; j<10; ++j){ 
    A.push([j, Math.sqrt(j)]);
}

var csvRows = [];

for(var i=0, l=A.length; i<l; ++i){
    csvRows.push(A[i].join(','));
}

var csvString = csvRows.join("%0A");

if (window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob) {
    var blob = new Blob([csvString]);
    window.navigator.msSaveOrOpenBlob(blob, 'myFile.csv');
} else {
    var a         = document.createElement('a');
    a.href        = 'data:attachment/csv,' +  encodeURIComponent(csvString);
    a.target      = '_blank';
    a.download    = 'myFile.csv';
    document.body.appendChild(a);
    a.click();
}