HTML Table displays random cell values outside of table.

Question

I am using a string builder to set up an html table row by row so that it can be emailed. I currently gather my information from the database using a data reader and while dataReader.read, I use stringbuilder.Append to add each cell value to the table.

The issue is that after about 200 rows, the html breaks and displays a cell value above the table in the email. I have tried changing the cell padding, but this was not successful. Any suggestions or ideas on why my html table is breaking would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, and I apologize for the lack of detail in my question.

Answer 1

Try running your output through a validator. I suspect you are closing a TR early.

Answer 2

The other thing that could be breaking your markup - especially if the rows are all built with the same code, but the breakage doesn't occur until partway down the table - is if your cell data contains '<' or '>' characters.

If it does, these need to be changed to '&lt;' and '&gt;' respectively. As you state that you're using vb.net, I suspect that you'll be able to use something like Html.Encode - which is available in c# (Can't say for sure, as I've never used vb.net)