How can I create a new line in a Visualforce CSV without using Apex code?

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Normally, I’d be iterating over a collection of records, but to simplify it I just have a header and two rows hard-coded, so that I could easily test it.

<apex:page 
       readOnly="true"
       contentType="application/octet-stream#MyCsv.csv"
       sidebar="false"
       standardStylesheets="false"
       showHeader="false"
       cache="true"
       expires="0">

    <apex:outputText value="Column 1,Column 2,Column 3"/>  <!-- what to put here ?-->
    <apex:outputText value="aVal1,aVal2,aVal3"/> <!-- ...and here? -->
    <apex:outputText value="bVal1,bVal2,bVal3"/>

</apex:page>

It works if I use a controller property and reference it as follows, but I’d rather not put that new line in the controller.

public String getNewLine() {
    return '\n';
}

<apex:outputText value="{!newLine}"/>

I’ve tried apex:outputText value="\n", \r, \r\n, BR(), <br/>, &#010;,&#012;,&#013;, also with each using escape="false" but nothing seems to work 100% correctly. Tried outputting all of the above in the value of the outputText and also on their own (i.e., not in an apex:outputText). Still couldn’t work.

One thing that I did notice was that if I put the \n at the beginning of the line it does create a new line in the CSV, but literal \n also appears in the file:

\n<apex:outputText value="aVal1,aVal2,aVal3"/>

does output on a new line, but the output includes the literal ‘\n’:

\naVal1,aVal2,aVal3

If it matters, using Windows and Excel to open the CSV.

Answer

<apex:variable value="" var="newline"/>
<apex:outputText value="Column 1,Column 2,Column 3"/>  <!-- what to put here ?-->
{!newline}<apex:outputText value="aVal1,aVal2,aVal3"/> <!-- ...and here? -->
{!newline}<apex:outputText value="bVal1,bVal2,bVal3"/>

Attribution
Source : Link , Question Author : Peter Knolle , Answer Author : cwall

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