c# datatable to csv

Question

Could somebody please tell me why the following code is not working. The data is saved into the csv file, however the data is not separated. It all exists within the first cell of each row.

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

foreach (DataColumn col in dt.Columns)
{
    sb.Append(col.ColumnName + ',');
}

sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1);
sb.Append(Environment.NewLine);

foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++)
    {
        sb.Append(row[i].ToString() + ",");
    }

    sb.Append(Environment.NewLine);
}

File.WriteAllText("test.csv", sb.ToString());

Thanks.

Answer 1

StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
        SaveFileDialog fileSave = new SaveFileDialog();
        IEnumerable<string> columnNames = tbCifSil.Columns.Cast<DataColumn>().
                                          Select(column => column.ColumnName);
        sb.AppendLine(string.Join(",", columnNames));

        foreach (DataRow row in tbCifSil.Rows)
        {
            IEnumerable<string> fields = row.ItemArray.Select(field =>string.Concat("\"", field.ToString().Replace("\"", "\"\""), "\""));
            sb.AppendLine(string.Join(",", fields));
        }

        fileSave.ShowDialog();
        File.WriteAllText(fileSave.FileName, sb.ToString());

Answer 2

public void ExpoetToCSV(DataTable dtDataTable, string strFilePath)
{

    StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(strFilePath, false);
    //headers   
    for (int i = 0; i < dtDataTable.Columns.Count; i++)
    {
        sw.Write(dtDataTable.Columns[i].ToString().Trim());
        if (i < dtDataTable.Columns.Count - 1)
        {
            sw.Write(",");
        }
    }
    sw.Write(sw.NewLine);
    foreach (DataRow dr in dtDataTable.Rows)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < dtDataTable.Columns.Count; i++)
        {
            if (!Convert.IsDBNull(dr[i]))
            {
                string value = dr[i].ToString().Trim();
                if (value.Contains(','))
                {
                    value = String.Format("\"{0}\"", value);
                    sw.Write(value);
                }
                else
                {
                    sw.Write(dr[i].ToString().Trim());
                }
            }
            if (i < dtDataTable.Columns.Count - 1)
            {
                sw.Write(",");
            }
        }
        sw.Write(sw.NewLine);
    }
    sw.Close();
}

Answer 3

4 lines of code:

public static string ToCSV(DataTable tbl)
{
    StringBuilder strb = new StringBuilder();

    //column headers
    strb.AppendLine(string.Join(",", tbl.Columns.Cast<DataColumn>()
        .Select(s => "\"" + s.ColumnName + "\"")));

    //rows
    tbl.AsEnumerable().Select(s => strb.AppendLine(
        string.Join(",", s.ItemArray.Select(
            i => "\"" + i.ToString() + "\"")))).ToList();

    return strb.ToString();
}

Note that the ToList() at the end is important; I need something to force an expression evaluation. If I was code golfing, I could use Min() instead.

Also note that the result will have a newline at the end because of the last call to AppendLine(). You may not want this. You can simply call TrimEnd() to remove it.

Answer 4

I wrapped this up into an extension class, which allows you to call:

myDataTable.WriteToCsvFile("C:\\MyDataTable.csv");

on any DataTable.

public static class DataTableExtensions 
{
    public static void WriteToCsvFile(this DataTable dataTable, string filePath) 
    {
        StringBuilder fileContent = new StringBuilder();

        foreach (var col in dataTable.Columns) 
        {
            fileContent.Append(col.ToString() + ",");
        }

        fileContent.Replace(",", System.Environment.NewLine, fileContent.Length - 1, 1);

        foreach (DataRow dr in dataTable.Rows) 
        {
            foreach (var column in dr.ItemArray) 
            {
                fileContent.Append("\"" + column.ToString() + "\",");
            }

            fileContent.Replace(",", System.Environment.NewLine, fileContent.Length - 1, 1);
        }

        System.IO.File.WriteAllText(filePath, fileContent.ToString());
    }
}

Answer 5

Read this and this?

---

A better implementation would be

var result = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < table.Columns.Count; i++)
{
    result.Append(table.Columns[i].ColumnName);
    result.Append(i == table.Columns.Count - 1 ? "\n" : ",");
}

foreach (DataRow row in table.Rows)
{
    for (int i = 0; i < table.Columns.Count; i++)
    {
        result.Append(row[i].ToString());
        result.Append(i == table.Columns.Count - 1 ? "\n" : ",");
    }
}
 File.WriteAllText("test.csv", result.ToString());

Answer 6

To write to a file, I think the following method is the most efficient and straightforward: (You can add quotes if you want)

public static void WriteCsv(DataTable dt, string path)
{
    using (var writer = new StreamWriter(path)) {
        writer.WriteLine(string.Join(",", dt.Columns.Cast<DataColumn>().Select(dc => dc.ColumnName)));
        foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows) {
            writer.WriteLine(string.Join(",", row.ItemArray));
        }
    }
}