Exporting data from sql server to excel

There are several ways to Export/Import SQL Server data to an Excel file. In this article, a couple of ways to import and export SQL Server data to an Excel file will be explained:

• Export SQL Server data to an Excel file using
  • the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard
  • T-SQL code
  • Export to Excel from ApexSQL Complete
• Import SQL Server data into Excel using the Data Connection Wizard

In SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), there is a feature that provides for exporting data from one data source to another data source; in this case, data from SQL Server will be copied to an Excel file trough Export Wizard.

To start to use this feature, go to Object Explorer, right click on any database (e.g. AdventureworksDW2016CTP3), under the Tasks, choose Export Data command:

This will open the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard window:

To proceed with exporting SQL Server data to an Excel file, click the Next button. This will open the Choose a Data Source window. On this window, a source from which you want to copy data can be chosen:

From the Data source drop down box, choose the SQL Server Native Client 11.0 item. Under the Server name drop down box, choose the SQL Server instance from which data need to be copied. In the Authentication section, choose the authentication mode for the data source connection and under the Database drop down box, choose the database from which the data will be copied. After all these options are set, click the Next button to proceed.

This will open the Choose a Destination window in which can be specified where to copy data from the data source:

In the Destination drop down box, choose the Microsoft Excel item. Under the Excel file path, choose the destination for copied data from SQL Server data source (SQL Data.xlsx). In the Excel version drop down box, choose the version of the Microsoft Excel worksheet. After these are all set, press the Next button to continue. But after pressing the Next button, the following warning message may appear:

The operation could not be completed.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The ‘Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0’ provider is not registered on the local machine. (System.Data)

This happens because SSMS is a 32-bit application and when you launch the Export Wizard via SSMS, it launches a 32-bit version of Export Wizard. On the other hand, the machine (Operating system) on which SSMS is installed is a 64-bit version and the installed SQL Server is a 64-bit version.

To solve this problem, close SSMS, go to the Start menu and find the 64-bit version of SQL Server Import and Export Data:

After launching this SQL Server Import and Export Wizard, it will be prompted with the same window that is used via SSMS. After setting all previous options, click the Next button. The Specify Table Copy or Query window will appear:

On this window, whether to copy data from one or more tables and views or to copy the results of a query can be specified.

Select the Copy data from one or more tables or views radio button and click the Next button. The Select Source Table and Views window allows choosing one or more tables and views from which you want to export SQL Server data to an Excel file by clicking the check box next to the name of the table/view:

As it may be noticed, as soon as the check box next to a table/view is checked, the name of the table/view will be copied under the Destination column. This name represents the name of the sheet where the data from the table will be put, this name can be changed to whatever you like, but for now, it will be left as it is:

To preview which data will be generated to an Excel file, click the Preview button:

After choosing which tables/views data will be copied to an Excel file, click the Next button:

On the Save as Run Package window, check the Run immediately check box and click the Next button:

The Complete the Wizard window shows all options that are chosen for exporting operations. To finalize the process of export SQL Server data to an Excel file, click the Finish button. The last SQL Server Import and Export Wizard window shows the state of the data have been successfully exported or some errors occurred during exporting data:

In our case, the data were successfully generated into the SQL Data.xlsx file in the DimScenario sheet:

Export SQL Server data to an Excel file using T-SQL code

The Transact-SQL OPENROWSET can be used to export SQL Server data to an Excel file via SSMS. In a query editor type and execute the following code:

INSERT INTO OPENROWSET('Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0','Excel 12.0;
Database=C:UsersZivkoDesktopSQL Data.xlsx;','SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]') 
SELECT * FROM dbo.DimScenario

But, when executing the above code, the following error may occur:

Msg 15281, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
SQL Server blocked access to STATEMENT ‘OpenRowset/OpenDatasource’ of component ‘Ad Hoc Distributed Queries’ because this component is turned off as part of the security configuration for this server. A system administrator can enable the use of ‘Ad Hoc Distributed Queries’ by using sp_configure. For more information about enabling ‘Ad Hoc Distributed Queries’, search for ‘Ad Hoc Distributed Queries’ in SQL Server Books Online.

To resolve this error the Ad Hoc Distributed Queries option should be enabled This can be done by using the sp_configure procedure and executing the following SQL code in a query editor:

EXEC sp_configure 'show advanced options', 1
RECONFIGURE
EXEC sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1
RECONFIGURE

After executing the above code, the following message will appear that indicate that the show advanced options and Ad Hoc Distributed Queries options are enabled:

Configuration option ‘show advanced options’ changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.
Configuration option ‘Ad Hoc Distributed Queries’ changed from 0 to 1. Run the RECONFIGURE statement to install.

Now, when again the code is executed:

INSERT INTO OPENROWSET('Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0','Excel 12.0;
Database=C:UsersZivkoDesktopSQL Data.xlsx;','SELECT * FROM [Sheet1$]') 
SELECT * FROM dbo.DimScenario

The following error may appear:

OLE DB provider “Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0” for linked server “(null)” returned message “The Microsoft Access database engine cannot open or write to the file ”. It is already opened exclusively by another user, or you need permission to view and write its data.”.
Msg 7303, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Cannot initialize the data source object of OLE DB provider “Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.12.0” for linked server “(null)

This usually happens because of inadequate permissions.

More about how to resolving these issues can be found in the How to query Excel data using SQL Server linked servers page.

One way for resolving this issue is to open SSMS as an administrator and execute the code again. But this time, another error may appear:

Msg 213, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Column name or number of supplied values does not match table definition.

To resolved this, open excel file (e.g. SQL Data.xlsx) for which is planned to store the data from SQL Server table (e.g. dbo.DimScenario) and enter the column names which will represent the column names from the DimScenario table:

Close the SQL Data.xlsx file and once again execute the code:

Now, the following message will appear:

(3 rows affected)

Finally, the data from the SQL Server table are copied into the Excel file:

Import SQL Server data into Excel using the Data Connection Wizard dialog

Another way to copy data from SQL Server table to an Excel file is to use the Data Connection Wizard dialog from Excel.

In order to achieve that, open an Excel file (e.g. SQL Data.xlsx) in which you want to import data. In the Data tab, under the From Other Source sub-menu, choose the From SQL Server command:

This will open the Data Connection Wizard dialog. In the Server name, enter a name of the SQL Server instance from which data need to be copied. In the Log on credentials section, choose the authentication mode for the data source connection and click the Next button:

From the Select the database that contains the data you want drop down box, choose the database from which the data will be copied. In the grid, all available tables and views will be listed. Choose a desired table / view (e.g. DimScenario) and click the Next button to proceed.

On this window, leave everything as it is and press the Finish button:

In the Import Data dialog, choose the Table radio button, under the Where do you want to put the data? section, choose the Existing worksheet radio button and press the OK button:

After pressing the OK button, the data from the DimScenario table will be copied to the SQL Data.xslx file:

Export SQL Server data to an Excel file using Export to Excel from ApexSQL Complete

Using the Export to Excel feature from ApexSQL Complete, add-in for SSMS and Visual Studio, exporting data from the SQL Server table to an Excel file can be done by one click.

In a query editor, type and execute the following code:

SELECT * FROM dbo.DimScenario ds

From the Results grid, select data that you want to export to an Excel file, right click in the Result grid and, from the context menu, choose the Export to Excel option:

This will open a new Excel workbook and the selected data from the Results grid will be copied in the first worksheet:

More about exporting to Excel via ApexSQL Complete can be found on the Export to Excel page.

See also:

• Tutorial: Import Data into Excel, and Create a Data Model
• Get started with this simple example of the Import and Export Wizard
• How to query Excel data using SQL Server linked servers
• Export to Excel

September 11, 2017

In a previous article, SQL and Excel: Why you need both, we showed that for many businesses the use of both SQL Server and Excel is an optimum approach to data management.  For organizations that use SQL Server and Excel extensively, there is often a need to export data from SQL Server to Excel.  The most common reasons to get the data into Excel are to:

• produce data visualizations such as charts and graphs for use in reports
• aggregate or analyze data in pivot charts
• collate data from multiple sources for further transformation
• make the data available to non-database users to view or process

In this article, we’re going to look at how to export data from SQL Server to Excel.  The first method uses the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard, which can be used to export data to a number of destination types, not just Excel.  The second method uses native functionality in Excel.  The third method uses the SQL Spreads Add-In for Excel, which provides functionality beyond the export process.  There are pros and cons of each method, which we’ll summarise at the end of the article.

Method (1): Exporting using SQL Server Import and Export Wizard

The SQL Server Import and Export Wizard can be launched from within SQL Server Management Studio or as a stand-alone application.

From within SQL Server Management Studio, click on the database from which you want to export data.  We’re using the demo database in our example, so click on that and then right-click and select Tasks > Export Data.

The Welcome page is displayed, and you can go ahead and click ‘Next’.

On the next screen, select the data source.  To export from SQL Server, select ‘SQL Server Native Client’.

Once you’ve selected ‘SQL Server Native Client’, the details about the data source will be populated by the wizard.

Click ‘Next’ to go to the next screen, where you going to choose the destination for the export, which for us is Excel.

When you select Excel as the choice of destination, you then need to provide the location of the Excel file.  When you then click ‘Next’, you may see the following message:

The operation could not be completed.
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:
The ‘Microsoft.ACE.OLEDB.16.0’ provider is not registered on the local machine. (System.Data)

The reason this message appears is that when you launch the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard from SSMS, a 32-bit version of the wizard is launched (because SSMS is 32-bit) and your operating system is 64-bit.  There is more information on this here.

To get around this, you need to close SSMS and go to the Windows Start menu and search for the 64-bit version of the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard from the Start menu.  Note that this version will only be installed on your computer if you have installed SQL Server.

Once the stand-alone version of the Wizard has started, you can go through the steps as discussed so far, which was to specify the source and destination of the data copy.  We now need to define what we want to copy, and (optionally) configure the copy operation.

After clicking ‘Next’ on the ‘Choose a Destination’ screen, you specify whether you want to export one or more complete tables or views, or a subset of data via a SQL query.  In our case, we are exporting from a single table, so we can leave the default option selected.

Next, we’re going to edit the column mappings by clicking the ‘Edit Mappings…’ button.  The Column Mappings screen allows you to make changes to the name and data type of the columns that will be created in Excel by the copy operation.  In our example, we’re going to change the data type for the ‘order_date’ column from VarChar to DateTime.  We’ll leave the others as the default set by the wizard. Click ‘Next’.  The next screen in the wizard summarizes that the source is a SQL table called sales and the destination will be to a sheet called ‘sales’ in the Excel workbook.  You can change the name of the sheet as needed.

Once done, click ‘Ok’ to close the dialog and then ‘Next’.

If any of the mappings that we specified may not succeed in the export process the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard shows the Review Data Type Mapping page. This page will highlight the conversions that the wizard needs to perform to handle the mappings that you have specified. It also indicates what the wizard will do if a there is an error during the conversion.  It can either ignore the error or cause the export to fail.  In our example, several columns have been flagged: the ones where there is a conversion from nvarchar(max) to its Excel equivalent, Long Text, and also  the conversion from VarChar to DateTime for the ‘order_date’ column.  The default setting is for the wizard to fail if there is an error, so we’ll leave that option in place.

Note: This SQL Import and Export Wizard uses SSIS under the hood; in other words, each time you run the wizard, you are creating an SSIS package.  This is why you are given the option of saving it for future use.Click ‘Next’.  The wizard now offers you the chance to save the Wizard configuration as an SSIS package in addition to the default option of running the copy immediately.

We are just going to leave the default option ticked and then click the ‘Next’ button.

The wizard now displays a summary of the steps that we have configured.

Click ‘Finish’, and the wizard will now show the final screen, which is the result of the execution.  In our case, the execution was successful, and we can see that 5484 records were copied to the ‘Query’ sheet in our Excel workbook.

We can check that the data has been exported from SQL Server to Excel by opening up the file that we specified and checking the ‘sales’ sheet.

Now that the data is in Excel, we can create some visualizations or aggregations, or whatever other processing we want to perform.  For example, we could create a pivot chart to display the Total per item per region.

Method (2): Exporting using native functionality in Excel

Although the method itself is much the same, Microsoft has made improvements in the last few releases to the way you get data from other sources into Excel.  The main change was the addition of the Power Query data import wizards and tools as a native component in Excel 2016.  These are accessed from the Power Query Editor, although it’s not displayed as such on the Excel Ribbon – instead, it is branded as Get & Transform Data group on the Data tab of the Excel ribbon.

The steps described below are valid for Excel 2016 and beyond.

To get started with the export from SQL Server to Excel, click on Data > Get Data > From Database > From SQL Server Database.

You are next prompted to enter the database server to connect to and, optionally, specify a database.  If you don’t specify a database, you can select from the available ones on the next screen.

Click ‘Ok’. You’ll then be prompted to provide authentication details.  The default is Windows, so you can go ahead and click ‘Connect’.

The next screen allows you to navigate through the databases and tables on the database server that you specified.  Click on the ‘demo’ database to expand it and then click on the ‘sales’ table.  The data for the selected table is displayed in the right-hand window.  We could now click the ‘Load’ button to get the data into Excel immediately.  Alternatively, we can click on ‘Transform Data’ to perform transformations on the data (eg change data types, clean up some data, perform computations).  For this example, we’re just going to load the data as it is, so go ahead and click ‘Load’.

The data is now exported from the table in SQL Server and loaded into a new sheet in Excel.

That is all we need to do to perform a simple export of a full table from SQL Server to Excel. Aside from the simple procedure we’ve described here, the Power Query data import wizards and tools provide ways to ‘shape’ the data from external sources.  For example, you can remove a column, change a data type, merge tables to meet your specific needs.

Method (3): Exporting using SQL Spreads Add-In for Excel

If you don’t already have the SQL Spreads Add-In for Excel installed, you can download a copy here.

Once SQL Spreads is installed, you’ll see that it has been added as a new ribbon tab; go here and click the Design Mode button.

In the SQL Spreads Designer panel on the right side, click the Edit button to open the SQL Server connection dialog.

Enter the name of your SQL Server into the SQL Server name field.  You also need to choose an authentication method: Windows-login (Windows Authentication) or SQL Server Authentication (using a name and password set up in SQL Server).  Windows authentication is the more secure of the two options.

Click OK. SQL Spreads will try to connect to the database. If the connection is successful, your databases will show up in the SQL Spreads Designer panel.

We can now expand the demo database and select the sales table.

When you click on the table, the data is immediately exported from SQL Server and copied to a sheet called ‘sales’ in Excel.

That’s it!  We’ve managed to export data from SQL Server to Excel with just a couple of clicks.

There are several more options available to us in the SQL Spreads Designer.  For example, we can:

• filter the data that is exported from SQL Server
• set whether certain columns are displayed and/or read-only
• use a look-up value to display text instead of an id for a column
• sort data
• make updates in Excel and save changes to SQL Server

There is more information on these features in the SQL Spreads knowledgebase here.

Summary

Being able to export data from SQL Server to Excel is a common requirement in most businesses.  We’ve looked at three methods for performing this day-to-day task.  The first uses the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard, which is native functionality in SQL Server.  The second method uses the native ‘Get & Transform’ tools in Excel.  The third uses the SQL Spreads Add-In for Excel.

So which method should you use?

If you normally work with databases, and SSMS is your second home, you’ll probably feel that the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard is the best option for you.  If you are an Excel user, then it makes sense to work from within Excel itself to export data from SQL Server.  Both of the two Excel options that we’ve looked at are robust and easy to use, but SQL Spreads has a distinct advantage because it allows users to make updates to data directly in Excel and then save the data back to SQL Server.  This is a huge advantage for those organizations that like the best of both worlds: the ease of use and familiarity of Excel, with the power and data integrity associated with SQL Server.

Try SQL Spreads to see how quick and easy it is to export data from SQL Server to Excel; download a free trial version today.

*This article was originally published on August 26, 2021 and was updated on July 4, 2022 to include some new screenshots.

«Hello, I am new to SQL. We use SQL query in SQL 2016 Server. And then we are exporting the output to excel. Could you please guide me on how to make the process automated for exporting data from SQL to Excel. Since I don’t want to do the task manually any longer. «

If you come across the same problem as mentioned above and want to find a way to export SQL Server data to Excel, don’t fret. This page covers two possible ways to help you export data from SQL Server automatically.

Two Ways to Export Data from SQL Server to Excel

You can use the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard and Data Connection Wizard in Excel to export data from SQL Server to Excel. See the details below. 

Solution 1. Use the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard

1. Open SQL Server Management Studio and connect to the database. 

2. Go to «Object Explorer», find the server database you want to export to Excel. Right-click on it and choose «Tasks» > «Export Data» to export table data in SQL. Then, the SQL Server Import and Export Wizard welcome window pop up. 

3. Now, you need to click on the Data source drop-down button to choose the data source you want to copy. Here, select «SQL Server Native Client 11.0». In the Server name drop-down box, select a SQL Server instance. In the Authentication section, choose authentication for the data source connection and from the Database drop-down box, select a database from which data will be copied. After everything is set, press the «Next» button. 

4. On the «Choose a Destination» window, in the Destination box, choose Microsoft Excel item for exporting data from SQL Server to Excel. Choose the Excel file path and version as you need. Then, click the «Next» button to continue.

5. On the Specify Table Copy or Query screen, you can choose «Copy data from one or more tables or views». Then, click «Next» to go on.

6. In the «Select Source Table and Views» window, you can choose one or more tables and views from which you want to export SQL Server data to an Excel. Click the «Preview» button to preview which data will be generated to an Excel file. Click the «Next» button to move on. 

7. Here, on the «Save and Run Package» window, check the «Run immediately» and click the «Next» button.

8. On the «Complete» Wizard window, you can check all the settings set during of exporting process. If everything is right, click «Finish» to start exporting SQL database to Excel.

9. You can view the exporting process in this step. When it completes, click on «Report» drop-down button.

10. You can choose «Save Report to File…» (including Excel, Notepad) to save the report. Here, you need to choose Excel as the target file format. 

How to Repair SQL Server Database

SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) offers the Import and Export Wizard feature to export data from one data source to another data source. Namely, you can apply this function to export SQL to Excel. For exporting SQL Server database to CSV, link to check the details.

Step 1. Close the SQL Service in Task Manager or SQL Server Manager Console.

Step 2. Run EaseUS MS SQL Recovery, click «Browse» (the two dots) or «Search» to choose the location where you saved your corrupted database. Afterward, Click «Repair» to start analyzing the specified database.

Step 3. When it has done, choose the files you want to repair and click «Export».

Step 4. Turn on the SQL service, you can choose to export the repaired files to database to export it as SQL scripts.

Solution 2. Using the Data Connection Wizard in Excel

Another way to export data from SQL Server to Excel file is to use the Data Connection Wizard dialog in Excel.

1. Launch Excel, open an Excel file in which you want to export SQL Server data. On the toolbar, click the «Data» tab > select «From Other Sources» > choose «From SQL Server».

2. The «Data Connection Wizard» window will pop up. Enter the name of the SQL Server instance from which data need to export. In the «Log on credentials» section, choose «Use Windows Authentication» mode for the data source connection and click the «Next» button.

3. Choose the database from which the data will be exported. And click the «Next» button to proceed. On the next window, leave everything as it is and press the «Finish» button.

4. In the Import Data dialog, choose «Table» and «Existing worksheet» as the screenshot shows. Press the «OK» button. After this, the SQL Server data will be exported to Excel file. 

For anyone coming here looking for how to do this in C#, I have tried the following method and had success in dotnet core 2.0.3 and entity framework core 2.0.3

First create your model class.

public class User
{  
    public string Name { get; set; }  
    public int Address { get; set; }  
    public int ZIP { get; set; }  
    public string Gender { get; set; }  
} 

Then install EPPlus Nuget package. (I used version 4.0.5, probably will work for other versions as well.)

Install-Package EPPlus -Version 4.0.5

The create ExcelExportHelper class, which will contain the logic to convert dataset to Excel rows. This class do not have dependencies with your model class or dataset.

public class ExcelExportHelper
    {
        public static string ExcelContentType
        {
            get
            { return "application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.spreadsheetml.sheet"; }
        }

        public static DataTable ListToDataTable<T>(List<T> data)
        {
            PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
            DataTable dataTable = new DataTable();

            for (int i = 0; i < properties.Count; i++)
            {
                PropertyDescriptor property = properties[i];
                dataTable.Columns.Add(property.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(property.PropertyType) ?? property.PropertyType);
            }

            object[] values = new object[properties.Count];
            foreach (T item in data)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
                {
                    values[i] = properties[i].GetValue(item);
                }

                dataTable.Rows.Add(values);
            }
            return dataTable;
        }

        public static byte[] ExportExcel(DataTable dataTable, string heading = "", bool showSrNo = false, params string[] columnsToTake)
        {

            byte[] result = null;
            using (ExcelPackage package = new ExcelPackage())
            {
                ExcelWorksheet workSheet = package.Workbook.Worksheets.Add(String.Format("{0} Data", heading));
                int startRowFrom = String.IsNullOrEmpty(heading) ? 1 : 3;

                if (showSrNo)
                {
                    DataColumn dataColumn = dataTable.Columns.Add("#", typeof(int));
                    dataColumn.SetOrdinal(0);
                    int index = 1;
                    foreach (DataRow item in dataTable.Rows)
                    {
                        item[0] = index;
                        index++;
                    }
                }


                // add the content into the Excel file  
                workSheet.Cells["A" + startRowFrom].LoadFromDataTable(dataTable, true);

                // autofit width of cells with small content  
                int columnIndex = 1;
                foreach (DataColumn column in dataTable.Columns)
                {
                    int maxLength;
                    ExcelRange columnCells = workSheet.Cells[workSheet.Dimension.Start.Row, columnIndex, workSheet.Dimension.End.Row, columnIndex];
                    try
                    {
                        maxLength = columnCells.Max(cell => cell.Value.ToString().Count());
                    }
                    catch (Exception) //nishanc
                    {
                        maxLength = columnCells.Max(cell => (cell.Value +"").ToString().Length);
                    }

                    //workSheet.Column(columnIndex).AutoFit();
                    if (maxLength < 150)
                    {
                        //workSheet.Column(columnIndex).AutoFit();
                    }


                    columnIndex++;
                }

                // format header - bold, yellow on black  
                using (ExcelRange r = workSheet.Cells[startRowFrom, 1, startRowFrom, dataTable.Columns.Count])
                {
                    r.Style.Font.Color.SetColor(System.Drawing.Color.White);
                    r.Style.Font.Bold = true;
                    r.Style.Fill.PatternType = OfficeOpenXml.Style.ExcelFillStyle.Solid;
                    r.Style.Fill.BackgroundColor.SetColor(Color.Brown);
                }

                // format cells - add borders  
                using (ExcelRange r = workSheet.Cells[startRowFrom + 1, 1, startRowFrom + dataTable.Rows.Count, dataTable.Columns.Count])
                {
                    r.Style.Border.Top.Style = ExcelBorderStyle.Thin;
                    r.Style.Border.Bottom.Style = ExcelBorderStyle.Thin;
                    r.Style.Border.Left.Style = ExcelBorderStyle.Thin;
                    r.Style.Border.Right.Style = ExcelBorderStyle.Thin;

                    r.Style.Border.Top.Color.SetColor(System.Drawing.Color.Black);
                    r.Style.Border.Bottom.Color.SetColor(System.Drawing.Color.Black);
                    r.Style.Border.Left.Color.SetColor(System.Drawing.Color.Black);
                    r.Style.Border.Right.Color.SetColor(System.Drawing.Color.Black);
                }

                // removed ignored columns  
                for (int i = dataTable.Columns.Count - 1; i >= 0; i--)
                {
                    if (i == 0 && showSrNo)
                    {
                        continue;
                    }
                    if (!columnsToTake.Contains(dataTable.Columns[i].ColumnName))
                    {
                        workSheet.DeleteColumn(i + 1);
                    }
                }

                if (!String.IsNullOrEmpty(heading))
                {
                    workSheet.Cells["A1"].Value = heading;
                   // workSheet.Cells["A1"].Style.Font.Size = 20;

                    workSheet.InsertColumn(1, 1);
                    workSheet.InsertRow(1, 1);
                    workSheet.Column(1).Width = 10;
                }

                result = package.GetAsByteArray();
            }

            return result;
        }

        public static byte[] ExportExcel<T>(List<T> data, string Heading = "", bool showSlno = false, params string[] ColumnsToTake)
        {
            return ExportExcel(ListToDataTable<T>(data), Heading, showSlno, ColumnsToTake);
        }
    }

Now add this method where you want to generate the excel file, probably for a method in the controller. You can pass parameters for your stored procedure as well. Note that the return type of the method is FileContentResult. Whatever query you execute, important thing is you must have the results in a List.

[HttpPost]
public async Task<FileContentResult> Create([Bind("Id,StartDate,EndDate")] GetReport getReport)
{
    DateTime startDate = getReport.StartDate;
    DateTime endDate = getReport.EndDate;

    // call the stored procedure and store dataset in a List.
    List<User> users = _context.Reports.FromSql("exec dbo.SP_GetEmpReport @start={0}, @end={1}", startDate, endDate).ToList();
    //set custome column names
    string[] columns = { "Name", "Address", "ZIP", "Gender"};
    byte[] filecontent = ExcelExportHelper.ExportExcel(users, "Users", true, columns);
    // set file name.
    return File(filecontent, ExcelExportHelper.ExcelContentType, "Report.xlsx"); 
}

More details can be found here