Since Office 2002, which most people have by now, Excel has supported a format called "XML Spreadsheet." As the name implies, it's just a text file, so you can produce these things on the fly without having to buy a thing. And everyone loves using Excel to filter, sort, and graph data; it makes them feel smart. Plus, it prints a lot better than raw html. Check Microsoft's reference to make sure you get the number formats right.

One approach is xslt transforms on the server; most browsers have xslt, but not when you want to use different mime types. You're better off taking a sample report in the format you like, then using File -> Save As -> File Type: XML Spreadsheet, then finding the few edits you'll need to make. One is obvious, the data itself, but you'll have to change the size of the worksheet, too.

Finally, either use Response.Write("<content type=application/vnd.ms-excel>") or Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel" and send the data. Or, build the file in advance and link to it, letting IIS actually serve it up.

Thanks for sharing the info.It seems to be quite useful.

You can use XML in the old school ASP? Are you sure?

Of course you can use XML in asp 3.0! It's plain text - that's the appeal. All you need to do is stream a particular flavor of XML down to the client with search and replace string functionality. It's actually pretty easy.

Hi,
Its very interesting and informative.As i am a bud in this technology ,Really it is useful and helpful for me.Thanks for sharing with us.

If its a single sheet report a simplest and fastest way to reproduce excel output is.

Using the FileSystem object create the flat file with html table statements like below and save as .xls file. When the html get opened in excel, it uses the table structure to rows and columns, fastest ever.

This code will trigger excel to open with the desired output.

<%
Response.ContentType = "application/vnd.ms-excel"
Response.write("<table>")
Response.write("<tr>")
Response.write("<th>")
Response.write("column  header 1")
Response.write("</th>")
Response.write("<th>")
Response.write("column  header 2")
Response.write("</th>")
Response.write("</tr>")
 
Response.write("<tr>")
Response.write("<td>")
Response.write("Row 1 column  data 1")
Response.write("</td>")
Response.write("<td>")
Response.write("Row 1 column  data 2")
Response.write("</td>")
Response.write("</tr>")
 
Response.write("<tr>")
Response.write("<td>")
Response.write("Row 2 column  data 1")
Response.write("</td>")
Response.write("<td>")
Response.write("Row 2 column  data 2")
Response.write("</td>")
Response.write("</tr>")
Response.write("</table>")
 
%>