How to add data from list to excel using apex coding

Question

I am querying some fields of Account objects records. And i am storing them in a list. Now i want to send this data through mail with excel sheet attached(which contains list data of Account Records) on click of send email from VF page. But i am getting the error as blob variable do not exist. Please check the below code.

     List<Account>  ObjectList1 = [SELECT id,Name FROM Account];
     Messaging.EmailFileAttachment csvAttc = new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment();
     blob csvBlob = Blob.valueOf(ObjectList1);
     string csvname= 'Duplicate.xls';
     csvAttc.setFileName(csvname);
     csvAttc.setBody(csvBlob);
     Messaging.SingleEmailMessage email =new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage();
     String toAddresses = '[email protected]';
     String subject ='Duplicate Data';
     email.setSubject(subject);
     email.setToAddresses( toAddresses );
     email.setPlainTextBody('Duplicate Data');
     email.setFileAttachments(new Messaging.EmailFileAttachment[]{csvAttc});
     Messaging.SendEmailResult [] r = Messaging.sendEmail(new Messaging.SingleEmailMessage[] {email});

Answer 1

There are a couple of bits that won't work in your code:

Blob csvBlob = Blob.valueOf(ObjectList1);

ObjectList1 is List<Account> in your code. Blob.valueof takes String as input. This is the source of your error.

Another error is in this line:

email.setToAddresses(toAddresses);

This method requires input of List<String>, and you are passing a single string.

But I think what you will have the most success by running a report through the Analytics API and generate the results as CSV (String) and then pass it into your Blob.valueof() method. This technique is discussed in another StackExchange question that you can find here.

Generating this through a report gives you the ability to change the data produced in the PDF without changing code. You can also secure access to the report, or open it up to other users to modify, if need be.