We have a web portal application (java servlet) that sends a MIME stream to
the browser client (Internet Explorer) that is essentially a csv file. This
is how we do that -
response.setContentType("application/octet-stream");
response.setHeader("Content-Disposition:","attachment;filename=Filename.csv");

IE presents the user with its "standard" file download dialog (open, save,
etc. - the file name is listed as Filename.csv in the dialog). When the
user chooses to open the file IE loads the stream (csv file) into an Excel
session (under IE) and the data is parsed properly - HOWEVER the problem is
in the file name under Excel. The file name comes up as Filename[1].csv in
Excel (the worksheet tab name is a goofy derivation of that -
csv.Filename[1]) The square-bracket-index value is being added by IE (a temp
file by that name is actually stored in the IE temp folders). Excel is
choking on the [] values, I believe. How do I either tell EI not to put the
index into the name or have Excel ignore the square brackets?

If I didn't know better this almost seems like a bug in Excel (I am using
Excel 2000 for testing). Transitioning a data stream (i.e a file) from IE to
Excel should be cleaner than this - especially since Excel uses .csv as a
"supported" file type.

When the user chooses to save the .csv through IE a file WITHOUT the
square-bracket-index is placed on the local PC. When user opens that saved
csv in Excel everything parses ok and the file name is also ok.

Thanks
--
Joe Floeder