[c#] Exporting the values in List to excel

I know, I am late to this party, however I think it could be helpful for others.

Already posted answers are for csv and other one is by Interop dll where you need to install excel over the server, every approach has its own pros and cons. Here is an option which will give you

1. Perfect excel output [not csv]
2. With perfect excel and your data type match
3. Without excel installation
4. Pass list and get Excel output :)

you can achieve this by using NPOI DLL, available for both .net as well as for .net core

Steps :

1. Import NPOI DLL
2. Add Section 1 and 2 code provided below
3. Good to go

Section 1

This code performs below task :

1. Creating New Excel object - _workbook = new XSSFWorkbook();
2. Creating New Excel Sheet object - _sheet =_workbook.CreateSheet(_sheetName);
3. Invokes WriteData() - explained later Finally, creating and
4. returning MemoryStream object

=============================================================================

using NPOI.SS.UserModel;
using NPOI.XSSF.UserModel;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;

namespace GenericExcelExport.ExcelExport
{
    public interface IAbstractDataExport
    {
        HttpResponseMessage Export(List exportData, string fileName, string sheetName);
    }

    public abstract class AbstractDataExport : IAbstractDataExport
    {
        protected string _sheetName;
        protected string _fileName;
        protected List _headers;
        protected List _type;
        protected IWorkbook _workbook;
        protected ISheet _sheet;
        private const string DefaultSheetName = "Sheet1";

        public HttpResponseMessage Export
              (List exportData, string fileName, string sheetName = DefaultSheetName)
        {
            _fileName = fileName;
            _sheetName = sheetName;

            _workbook = new XSSFWorkbook(); //Creating New Excel object
            _sheet = _workbook.CreateSheet(_sheetName); //Creating New Excel Sheet object

            var headerStyle = _workbook.CreateCellStyle(); //Formatting
            var headerFont = _workbook.CreateFont();
            headerFont.IsBold = true;
            headerStyle.SetFont(headerFont);

            WriteData(exportData); //your list object to NPOI excel conversion happens here

            //Header
            var header = _sheet.CreateRow(0);
            for (var i = 0; i < _headers.Count; i++)
            {
                var cell = header.CreateCell(i);
                cell.SetCellValue(_headers[i]);
                cell.CellStyle = headerStyle;
            }

            for (var i = 0; i < _headers.Count; i++)
            {
                _sheet.AutoSizeColumn(i);
            }

            using (var memoryStream = new MemoryStream()) //creating memoryStream
            {
                _workbook.Write(memoryStream);
                var response = new HttpResponseMessage(HttpStatusCode.OK)
                {
                    Content = new ByteArrayContent(memoryStream.ToArray())
                };

                response.Content.Headers.ContentType = new MediaTypeHeaderValue
                       ("application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet");
                response.Content.Headers.ContentDisposition = 
                       new ContentDispositionHeaderValue("attachment")
                {
                    FileName = $"{_fileName}_{DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddHHmmss")}.xlsx"
                };

                return response;
            }
        }

        //Generic Definition to handle all types of List
        public abstract void WriteData(List exportData);
    }
}

=============================================================================

Section 2

In section 2, we will be performing below steps :

1. Converts List to DataTable Reflection to read property name, your
2. Column header will be coming from here
3. Loop through DataTable to Create excel Rows

=============================================================================

using NPOI.SS.UserModel;
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Text.RegularExpressions;

namespace GenericExcelExport.ExcelExport
{
    public class AbstractDataExportBridge : AbstractDataExport
    {
        public AbstractDataExportBridge()
        {
            _headers = new List<string>();
            _type = new List<string>();
        }

        public override void WriteData<T>(List<T> exportData)
        {
            PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));

            DataTable table = new DataTable();

            foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
            {
                var type = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType;
                _type.Add(type.Name);
                table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? 
                                  prop.PropertyType);
                string name = Regex.Replace(prop.Name, "([A-Z])", " $1").Trim(); //space separated 
                                                                           //name by caps for header
                _headers.Add(name);
            }

            foreach (T item in exportData)
            {
                DataRow row = table.NewRow();
                foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
                    row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
                table.Rows.Add(row);
            }

            IRow sheetRow = null;

            for (int i = 0; i < table.Rows.Count; i++)
            {
                sheetRow = _sheet.CreateRow(i + 1);
                for (int j = 0; j < table.Columns.Count; j++)
                {
                    ICell Row1 = sheetRow.CreateCell(j);

                    string type = _type[j].ToLower();
                    var currentCellValue = table.Rows[i][j];

                    if (currentCellValue != null && 
                        !string.IsNullOrEmpty(Convert.ToString(currentCellValue)))
                    {
                        if (type == "string")
                        {
                            Row1.SetCellValue(Convert.ToString(currentCellValue));
                        }
                        else if (type == "int32")
                        {
                            Row1.SetCellValue(Convert.ToInt32(currentCellValue));
                        }
                        else if (type == "double")
                        {
                            Row1.SetCellValue(Convert.ToDouble(currentCellValue));
                        }
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        Row1.SetCellValue(string.Empty);
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

=============================================================================

Now you just need to call WriteData() function by passing your list, and it will provide you your excel.

I have tested it in WEB API and WEB API Core, works like a charm.