I'm using the latest Entity Framework with DBContext. I have a result set that I want to convert to comma separated values. I've done something similar with DataTables in VB DataTable to CSV extraction. I've got the QuoteName method working. I've also get a derivative of the GetCSV method working using a foreach. The problem is that it is a lot slower than the comparable code for a DataTable. So I'm hoping someone will have some suggestions.
public static string GetCSV(this IQueryable entity)
{
if (entity == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("entity");
}
Type T = entity.ElementType;
var props = T.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
string s = string.Empty;
int iCols = props.Count();
try
{
s += string.Join(",", (from int ii in Enumerable.Range(0, iCols)
select props[ii].Name.QuoteName("[]")).ToArray());
s += Environment.NewLine;
foreach (var dr in entity)
{
s += string.Join(",", (from int ii in Enumerable.Range(0, iCols)
select
props[ii].GetValue(dr)
.ToString()
.QuoteName("\"\"", ",")).ToArray());
s += Environment.NewLine;
}
s = s.TrimEnd(new char[] { (char)0x0A, (char)0x0D });
}
catch (Exception)
{
throw;
}
return s;
}
Don't use a string to create your file. Try using the StringBuilder class (http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.text.stringbuilder.aspx)
Strings are immutable objects - that is, once a string is created, it cannot be changed. Every time you change a string (such as concatenate it), you're actually creating a brand new string. Using a string is very inefficient here.
Instead, create a stringbuilder object:
StringBuilder builder = new StringBuilder();
builder.Append("my data");
At the end, just call
builder.ToString();
Check out nuget package CsvHelper (http://nuget.org/packages/CsvHelper/).
Here is an example of the usage from https://github.com/JoshClose/CsvHelper/wiki/Basics
using (var csv = new CsvWriter( new StreamWriter( "Actors.csv" ) ))
{
csv.WriteRecords( actorsList );
}
I got some help from my little brother on this. He said to use a StringBuilder as well.
This is the code answer:
/// <summary>
/// Quotes a string using the following rules:
/// <list>
/// <listheader>Rules</listheader>
/// <item>if the string is not quoted and the string contains the separator string</item>
/// <item>if the string is not quoted and the string begins or ends with a space</item>
/// <item>if the string is not quoted and the string contains CrLf</item>
/// </list>
/// </summary>
/// <param name="s">String to be quoted</param>
/// <param name="quote">
/// <list>
/// <listheader>quote characters</listheader>
/// <item>if len = 0 then double quotes assumed</item>
/// <item>if len = 1 then quote string is doubled for left and right quote characters</item>
/// <item>else first character is left quote, second character is right quote</item>
/// </list>
/// </param>
/// <param name="sep">separator string to check against</param>
/// <returns></returns>
/// <remarks></remarks>
public static string QuoteName(this string s, string quote = null, string sep = ",")
{
quote = quote == null ? "" : quote;
switch (quote.Length)
{
case 0:
quote = "\"\"";
break;
case 1:
quote += quote;
break;
}
// Fields with embedded sep are quoted
if ((!s.StartsWith(quote.Substring(0, 1))) && (!s.EndsWith(quote.Substring(1, 1))))
if (s.Contains(sep))
s = quote.Substring(0, 1) + s + quote.Substring(1, 1);
// Fields with leading or trailing blanks are quoted
if ((!s.StartsWith(quote.Substring(0, 1))) && (!s.EndsWith(quote.Substring(1, 1))))
if (s.StartsWith(" ") || s.EndsWith(" "))
s = quote.Substring(0, 1) + s + quote.Substring(1, 1);
// Fields with embedded CrLF are quoted
if ((!s.StartsWith(quote.Substring(0, 1))) && (!s.EndsWith(quote.Substring(1, 1))))
if (s.Contains(System.Environment.NewLine))
s = quote.Substring(0, 1) + s + quote.Substring(1, 1);
return s;
}
public static string GetCSV(this IQueryable entity)
{
if (entity == null)
{
throw new ArgumentNullException("entity");
}
Type T = entity.ElementType;
var props = T.GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);
var sb = new StringBuilder();
int iCols = props.Count();
try
{
sb.Append(string.Join(",", Enumerable.Range(0, iCols).Cast<int>().
Select(ii => props[ii].Name.QuoteName("[]")).ToArray()));
foreach (var dr in entity)
{
sb.AppendLine();
sb.Append(string.Join(",", Enumerable.Range(0, iCols).Cast<int>().
Select(ii => props[ii].GetValue(dr).
ToString().QuoteName("\"\"", ",")).ToArray()));
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
throw;
}
return sb.ToString();
}
}
I hope this is helpful to someone else.