Binaryworld - Quickly create HTML tables from an ADO Recordset ... [ ASP -> Data Access ]

The ADO Recordset object exposes the GetString method, which returns the values in the Recordset into a formatted string. Here's its syntax:

res = GetString([StringFormat As StringFormatEnum = adClipString], _
[NumRows As Long = -1], [ColumnDelimeter As String], _
[RowDelimeter As String], [NullExpr As String]) As String

This method is often used to quickly export a Recordset into a comma-delimited file, even though this approach has several flaws (for example, you can't put quotes around string values).
The GetString method, however, turns to be very handy when generating HTML tables based on an ADO Recordset. The trick is to use the correct delimiters for the table's cells and rows. Moreover, you must correctly complete the string with the opening tags for the first cell of the first row, and for the last cell of the last row. Here's an example of how to implement this technique:

Click here to copy the following block

Dim rs, tmp
Set rs = Server.CreateObject("ADODB.Recordset")
rs.Open "publishers", "DSN=pubs"

' open the table (you can set all the necessary attributes here)
Response.Write "<TABLE BORDER=1>

' convert the recordset to a table
tmp = rs.GetString( , , "</TD><TD>", "</TD></TR><TR><TD>", " ")
' to complete the conversion you must add the opening TR and TD tags
' for the very first cell, and drop the closing TD and TR tags
' after the very last cell
Response.Write "<TR><TD>" & Left(tmp, Len(tmp) - 8)
' close the table
Response.Write "</TABLE>"

Note that you must pass the HTML notation for "space", that is " ", in the last argument to GetString. If you don't do so, Null values will not produce any table cell.