Reading CSV files using C#

Question

I'm writing a simple import application and need to read a CSV file, show result in a DataGrid and show corrupted lines of the CSV file in another grid. For example, show the lines that are shorter than 5 values in another grid. I'm trying to do that like this:

StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(FilePath);
importingData = new Account();
string line;
string[] row = new string [5];
while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
{
    row = line.Split(',');

    importingData.Add(new Transaction
    {
        Date = DateTime.Parse(row[0]),
        Reference = row[1],
        Description = row[2],
        Amount = decimal.Parse(row[3]),
        Category = (Category)Enum.Parse(typeof(Category), row[4])
    });
}

but it's very difficult to operate on arrays in this case. Is there any better way to split the values?

Answer 1

To complete the previous answers, one may need a collection of objects from his CSV File, either parsed by the TextFieldParser or the string.Split method, and then each line converted to an object via Reflection. You obviously first need to define a class that matches the lines of the CSV file.

I used the simple CSV Serializer from Michael Kropat found here: Generic class to CSV (all properties) and reused his methods to get the fields and properties of the wished class.

I deserialize my CSV file with the following method:

public static IEnumerable<T> ReadCsvFileTextFieldParser<T>(string fileFullPath, string delimiter = ";") where T : new()
{
    if (!File.Exists(fileFullPath))
    {
        return null;
    }

    var list = new List<T>();
    var csvFields = GetAllFieldOfClass<T>();
    var fieldDict = new Dictionary<int, MemberInfo>();

    using (TextFieldParser parser = new TextFieldParser(fileFullPath))
    {
        parser.SetDelimiters(delimiter);

        bool headerParsed = false;

        while (!parser.EndOfData)
        {
            //Processing row
            string[] rowFields = parser.ReadFields();
            if (!headerParsed)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < rowFields.Length; i++)
                {
                    // First row shall be the header!
                    var csvField = csvFields.Where(f => f.Name == rowFields[i]).FirstOrDefault();
                    if (csvField != null)
                    {
                        fieldDict.Add(i, csvField);
                    }
                }
                headerParsed = true;
            }
            else
            {
                T newObj = new T();
                for (int i = 0; i < rowFields.Length; i++)
                {
                    var csvFied = fieldDict[i];
                    var record = rowFields[i];

                    if (csvFied is FieldInfo)
                    {
                        ((FieldInfo)csvFied).SetValue(newObj, record);
                    }
                    else if (csvFied is PropertyInfo)
                    {
                        var pi = (PropertyInfo)csvFied;
                        pi.SetValue(newObj, Convert.ChangeType(record, pi.PropertyType), null);
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        throw new Exception("Unhandled case.");
                    }
                }
                if (newObj != null)
                {
                    list.Add(newObj);
                }
            }
        }
    }
    return list;
}

public static IEnumerable<MemberInfo> GetAllFieldOfClass<T>()
{
    return
        from mi in typeof(T).GetMembers(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Static)
        where new[] { MemberTypes.Field, MemberTypes.Property }.Contains(mi.MemberType)
        let orderAttr = (ColumnOrderAttribute)Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(mi, typeof(ColumnOrderAttribute))
        orderby orderAttr == null ? int.MaxValue : orderAttr.Order, mi.Name
        select mi;            
}

Answer 2

My experience is that there are many different csv formats. Specially how they handle escaping of quotes and delimiters within a field.

These are the variants I have ran into:

• quotes are quoted and doubled (excel) i.e. 15" -> field1,"15""",field3
• quotes are not changed unless the field is quoted for some other reason. i.e. 15" -> field1,15",fields3
• quotes are escaped with \. i.e. 15" -> field1,"15\"",field3
• quotes are not changed at all (this is not always possible to parse correctly)
• delimiter is quoted (excel). i.e. a,b -> field1,"a,b",field3
• delimiter is escaped with \. i.e. a,b -> field1,a\,b,field3

I have tried many of the existing csv parsers but there is not a single one that can handle the variants I have ran into. It is also difficult to find out from the documentation which escaping variants the parsers support.

In my projects I now use either the VB TextFieldParser or a custom splitter.

Answer 3

private static DataTable ConvertCSVtoDataTable(string strFilePath)
        {
            DataTable dt = new DataTable();
            using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(strFilePath))
            {
                string[] headers = sr.ReadLine().Split(',');
                foreach (string header in headers)
                {
                    dt.Columns.Add(header);
                }
                while (!sr.EndOfStream)
                {
                    string[] rows = sr.ReadLine().Split(',');
                    DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
                    for (int i = 0; i < headers.Length; i++)
                    {
                        dr[i] = rows[i];
                    }
                    dt.Rows.Add(dr);
                }

            }

            return dt;
        }

        private static void WriteToDb(DataTable dt)
        {
            string connectionString =
                "Data Source=localhost;" +
                "Initial Catalog=Northwind;" +
                "Integrated Security=SSPI;";

            using (SqlConnection con = new SqlConnection(connectionString))
                {
                    using (SqlCommand cmd = new SqlCommand("spInsertTest", con))
                    {
                        cmd.CommandType = CommandType.StoredProcedure;

                        cmd.Parameters.Add("@policyID", SqlDbType.Int).Value = 12;
                        cmd.Parameters.Add("@statecode", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = "blagh2";
                        cmd.Parameters.Add("@county", SqlDbType.VarChar).Value = "blagh3";

                        con.Open();
                        cmd.ExecuteNonQuery();
                    }
                }

         }

Answer 4

Another one to this list, Cinchoo ETL - an open source library to read and write CSV files

For a sample CSV file below

Id, Name
1, Tom
2, Mark

Quickly you can load them using library as below

using (var reader = new ChoCSVReader("test.csv").WithFirstLineHeader())
{
   foreach (dynamic item in reader)
   {
      Console.WriteLine(item.Id);
      Console.WriteLine(item.Name);
   }
}

If you have POCO class matching the CSV file

public class Employee
{
   public int Id { get; set; }
   public string Name { get; set; }
}

You can use it to load the CSV file as below

using (var reader = new ChoCSVReader<Employee>("test.csv").WithFirstLineHeader())
{
   foreach (var item in reader)
   {
      Console.WriteLine(item.Id);
      Console.WriteLine(item.Name);
   }
}

Please check out articles at CodeProject on how to use it.

Disclaimer: I'm the author of this library