Select multiple cells in DataGrid and output to Excel sheet

I have a DataGrid with hundreds of rows and two columns of data. I will need to programmatically select a certain rows and some specific cell in a DataGrid and output them on an Excel worksheet. After doing some research, it seems the only way to get a Cell Value is to write a helper function, and the helper function gets run each time you get a ONE cell value.

Is there a easier/quicker way to get value of a specific cell in a DataGrid? Or Am I supposed to store each cel开发者_运维问答l value to an array concurrently when it goes to a DataGrid and output the array to Excel instead of the DataGrid?

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Let us say that the DataGriddisplays employees information, for each employee we store his Id, Name and Address. Lets add an additional Boolean property for each employee property (e.g. Id and IsIdSelected, Name and IsNameSelected) this Boolean property will be bound to the DataGrid.IsSelected property, thus, it represents whether the cell is selected or not, you could also use it to select the cell displaying the designated property programatically by setting it to True. See the following code:

/// <summary>
/// A class that represents an employee. Notice that with each property
/// (e.g. Id) there is a Boolean property that has a similar name (e.g. IsIdSelected)
/// this Boolean property will be bound to the relevant DataGridCell.IsSelected
/// property to indicate whether the cell representing this property were selected
/// or not. In other words if you want to know the selected properties at any moment
/// you just need to iterate through the employees collection, and examine each
/// Boolean property for each property :D
/// </summary>
public class Employee
{
    public int? Id { get; set; }
    public bool IsIdSelected { get; set; }

    public string Name { get; set; }
    public bool IsNameSelected { get; set; }

    public string Address { get; set; }
    public bool IsAddressSelected { get; set; }
}

The code behind:

using System.Collections.ObjectModel;
using System.Windows;

namespace CellSelection
{
    public partial class MainWindow : Window
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The DataGrid will be bound to this collection
        /// </summary>
        private ObservableCollection<Employee> _collection;

        public MainWindow()
        {
            InitializeComponent();

            // Initialize the employees collection with some test data
            _collection =
                new ObservableCollection<Employee>
                    {
                        new Employee {Id = 1, Name = "Mohammed A. Fadil", Address = "..."},
                        new Employee {Id = 485, Name = "Khalid Zein", Address = "..."},
                        new Employee {Id = 64, Name = "Ahmed Mubarak", Address = "..."},
                        new Employee {Id = 364, Name = "Ali Ebraheim", Address = "..."},
                    };

            DataContext = _collection;
        }

        private void OnExportButtonClick(object sender, RoutedEventArgs e)
        {
            // Now, concatinate all the selected cells
            var str = string.Empty;
            foreach (var emp in _collection)
            {
                if (emp.IsIdSelected)
                    str += string.Format("{0}, ", emp.Id);

                if (emp.IsNameSelected)
                    str += string.Format("{0}, ", emp.Name);

                if (emp.IsAddressSelected)
                    str += string.Format("{0}", emp.Address);

                str += "\n";
            }
            // Instead of displaying this message you could export these cells to Excel
            // in the format you need.
            MessageBox.Show(str);
        }
    }
}

The XAML code:

<Window x:Class="CellSelection.MainWindow"
        xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml/presentation"
        xmlns:x="http://schemas.microsoft.com/winfx/2006/xaml"
        Title="MainWindow" Height="350" Width="525">
    <Grid>
        <Grid.RowDefinitions>
            <RowDefinition Height="275*" />
            <RowDefinition Height="36*" />
        </Grid.RowDefinitions>
        <DataGrid ItemsSource="{Binding}" AutoGenerateColumns="False"
                  SelectionMode="Extended" SelectionUnit="CellOrRowHeader">
            <DataGrid.Columns>

                <DataGridTextColumn Header="Id" Binding="{Binding Id}">
                    <DataGridTextColumn.CellStyle>
                        <Style TargetType="DataGridCell">
                            <Setter Property="IsSelected">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <Binding Path="IsIdSelected" Mode="TwoWay"
                                             UpdateSourceTrigger="PropertyChanged"/>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                        </Style>
                    </DataGridTextColumn.CellStyle>
                </DataGridTextColumn>

                <DataGridTextColumn Header="Name" Binding="{Binding Name}">
                    <DataGridTextColumn.CellStyle>
                        <Style TargetType="DataGridCell">
                            <Setter Property="IsSelected">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <Binding Path="IsNameSelected" Mode="TwoWay"
                                             UpdateSourceTrigger="PropertyChanged"/>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                        </Style>
                    </DataGridTextColumn.CellStyle>
                </DataGridTextColumn>

                <DataGridTextColumn Header="Address" Binding="{Binding Address}">
                    <DataGridTextColumn.CellStyle>
                        <Style TargetType="DataGridCell">
                            <Setter Property="IsSelected">
                                <Setter.Value>
                                    <Binding Path="IsAddressSelected" Mode="TwoWay"
                                             UpdateSourceTrigger="PropertyChanged"/>
                                </Setter.Value>
                            </Setter>
                        </Style>
                    </DataGridTextColumn.CellStyle>
                </DataGridTextColumn>
            </DataGrid.Columns>
        </DataGrid>
        <Button Content="Export Selection" Grid.Row="1" HorizontalAlignment="Right"
                Click="OnExportButtonClick" Margin="5"/>
    </Grid>
</Window>

Note that for each DataGrid column you have to add a CellStyle that binds each column designated Boolean property to it's DataGridCell.IsSelected property, set this binding mode to Mode="TwoWay" in-order to support selecting cells programatically (In this case you have to implement INotifyPropertyChanged on the Employee class).

With this solution you neither need the helper function nor to access the DataGrid actual cells any more, just iterate through your collection, determine the selected properties and process them as needed.

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I have used Clipboard class in the past where you can get comma separated values from the grid and then save it as CSV and then open it from Excel. I guess it might depend what kind of Grid Control you using

MSDN On Clipboard