Convert generic List/Enumerable to DataTable?

Question

I have few methods that returns different Generic Lists.

Exists in .net any class static method or whatever to convert any list into a datatable? The only thing that i can imagine is use Reflection to do this.

IF i have this:

List<Whatever> whatever = new List<Whatever>();

(This next code doesn't work of course, but i would like to have the possibility of:

DataTable dt = (DataTable) whatever;

Answer 1

A small change to Mark's answer to make it work with value types like List<string> to data table:

public static DataTable ListToDataTable<T>(IList<T> data)
{
    DataTable table = new DataTable();

    //special handling for value types and string
    if (typeof(T).IsValueType || typeof(T).Equals(typeof(string)))
    {

        DataColumn dc = new DataColumn("Value");
        table.Columns.Add(dc);
        foreach (T item in data)
        {
            DataRow dr = table.NewRow();
            dr[0] = item;
            table.Rows.Add(dr);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
        {
            table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);
        }
        foreach (T item in data)
        {
            DataRow row = table.NewRow();
            foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
            {
                try
                {
                    row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    row[prop.Name] = DBNull.Value;
                }
            }
            table.Rows.Add(row);
        }
    }
    return table;
}

Answer 2

I also had to come up with an alternate solution, as none of the options listed here worked in my case. I was using an IEnumerable which returned an IEnumerable and the properties couldn't be enumerated. This did the trick:

// remove "this" if not on C# 3.0 / .NET 3.5
public static DataTable ConvertToDataTable<T>(this IEnumerable<T> data)
{
    List<IDataRecord> list = data.Cast<IDataRecord>().ToList();

    PropertyDescriptorCollection props = null;
    DataTable table = new DataTable();
    if (list != null && list.Count > 0)
    {
        props = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(list[0]);
        for (int i = 0; i < props.Count; i++)
        {
            PropertyDescriptor prop = props[i];
            table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);
        }
    }
    if (props != null)
    {
        object[] values = new object[props.Count];
        foreach (T item in data)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
            {
                values[i] = props[i].GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
            }
            table.Rows.Add(values);
        }
    }
    return table;
}

Answer 3

I had to modify Mark Gravell's sample code to handle nullable types and null values. I have included a working version below. Thanks Mark.

public static DataTable ToDataTable<T>(this IList<T> data)
{
    PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = 
        TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
    DataTable table = new DataTable();
    foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
        table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);
    foreach (T item in data)
    {
        DataRow row = table.NewRow();
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
             row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
        table.Rows.Add(row);
    }
    return table;
}

Answer 4

I realize that this has been closed for a while; however, I had a solution to this specific problem but needed a slight twist: the columns and data table needed to be predefined / already instantiated. Then I needed to simply insert the types into the data table.

So here's an example of what I did:

public static class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        var dataTable = new System.Data.DataTable(Guid.NewGuid().ToString());

        var columnCode = new DataColumn("Code");
        var columnLength = new DataColumn("Length");
        var columnProduct = new DataColumn("Product");

        dataTable.Columns.AddRange(new DataColumn[]
            {
                columnCode,
                columnLength,
                columnProduct
            });

        var item = new List<SomeClass>();

        item.Select(data => new
        {
            data.Id,
            data.Name,
            data.SomeValue
        }).AddToDataTable(dataTable);
    }
}

static class Extensions
{
    public static void AddToDataTable<T>(this IEnumerable<T> enumerable, System.Data.DataTable table)
    {
        if (enumerable.FirstOrDefault() == null)
        {
            table.Rows.Add(new[] {string.Empty});
            return;
        }

        var properties = enumerable.FirstOrDefault().GetType().GetProperties();

        foreach (var item in enumerable)
        {
            var row = table.NewRow();
            foreach (var property in properties)
            {
                row[property.Name] = item.GetType().InvokeMember(property.Name, BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, item, null);
            }
            table.Rows.Add(row);
        }
    }
}

Answer 5

public DataTable ConvertToDataTable<T>(IList<T> data)
{
    PropertyDescriptorCollection properties =
        TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));

    DataTable table = new DataTable();

    foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
            table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);

    foreach (T item in data)
    {
        DataRow row = table.NewRow();
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
            row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
        table.Rows.Add(row);
    }
    return table;
}

Answer 6

  using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Data;
using System.ComponentModel;

public partial class Default3 : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        DataTable dt = new DataTable();
        dt = lstEmployee.ConvertToDataTable();
    }
    public static DataTable ConvertToDataTable<T>(IList<T> list) where T : class
    {
        try
        {
            DataTable table = CreateDataTable<T>();
            Type objType = typeof(T);
            PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(objType);
            foreach (T item in list)
            {
                DataRow row = table.NewRow();
                foreach (PropertyDescriptor property in properties)
                {
                    if (!CanUseType(property.PropertyType)) continue;
                    row[property.Name] = property.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
                }

                table.Rows.Add(row);
            }
            return table;
        }
        catch (DataException ex)
        {
            return null;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            return null;
        }

    }
    private static DataTable CreateDataTable<T>() where T : class
    {
        Type objType = typeof(T);
        DataTable table = new DataTable(objType.Name);
        PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(objType);
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor property in properties)
        {
            Type propertyType = property.PropertyType;
            if (!CanUseType(propertyType)) continue;

            //nullables must use underlying types
            if (propertyType.IsGenericType && propertyType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Nullable<>))
                propertyType = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(propertyType);
            //enums also need special treatment
            if (propertyType.IsEnum)
                propertyType = Enum.GetUnderlyingType(propertyType);
            table.Columns.Add(property.Name, propertyType);
        }
        return table;
    }


    private static bool CanUseType(Type propertyType)
    {
        //only strings and value types
        if (propertyType.IsArray) return false;
        if (!propertyType.IsValueType && propertyType != typeof(string)) return false;
        return true;
    }
}