How to read a CSV file into a .NET Datatable

Question

How can I load a CSV file into a System.Data.DataTable, creating the datatable based on the CSV file?

Does the regular ADO.net functionality allow this?

Answer 1

The best option I have found, and it resolves issues where you may have different versions of Office installed, and also 32/64-bit issues like Chuck Bevitt mentioned, is FileHelpers.

It can be added to your project references using NuGet and it provides a one-liner solution:

CommonEngine.CsvToDataTable(path, "ImportRecord", ',', true);

Answer 2

Hey its working 100%

  public 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;
   }

CSV Image

Data table Imported

Answer 3

public DataTable CsvFileToDatatable(string path, bool IsFirstRowHeader)//here Path is root of file and IsFirstRowHeader is header is there or not
        {
            string header = "No";
            string sql = string.Empty;
            DataTable dataTable = null;
            string pathOnly = string.Empty;
            string fileName = string.Empty;

            try
            {

                pathOnly = Path.GetDirectoryName(path);
                fileName = Path.GetFileName(path);

                sql = @"SELECT * FROM [" + fileName + "]";

                if (IsFirstRowHeader)
                {
                    header = "Yes";
                }

                using (OleDbConnection connection = new OleDbConnection(
                        @"Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;Data Source=" + pathOnly +
                        ";Extended Properties=\"Text;HDR=" + header + "\""))
                {
                    using (OleDbCommand command = new OleDbCommand(sql, connection))
                    {
                        using (OleDbDataAdapter adapter = new OleDbDataAdapter(command))
                        {
                            dataTable = new DataTable();
                            dataTable.Locale = CultureInfo.CurrentCulture;
                            adapter.Fill(dataTable);

                        }
                    }
                }
            }
            finally
            {

            }

            return dataTable;

        }

Answer 4

Very basic answer: if you don't have a complex csv that can use a simple split function this will work well for importing (note this imports as strings, i do datatype conversions later if i need to)

 private DataTable csvToDataTable(string fileName, char splitCharacter)
    {                
        StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(fileName);
        string myStringRow = sr.ReadLine();
        var rows = myStringRow.Split(splitCharacter);
        DataTable CsvData = new DataTable();
        foreach (string column in rows)
        {
            //creates the columns of new datatable based on first row of csv
            CsvData.Columns.Add(column);
        }
        myStringRow = sr.ReadLine();
        while (myStringRow != null)
        {
            //runs until string reader returns null and adds rows to dt 
            rows = myStringRow.Split(splitCharacter);
            CsvData.Rows.Add(rows);
            myStringRow = sr.ReadLine();
        }
        sr.Close();
        sr.Dispose();
        return CsvData;
    }

My method if I am importing a table with a string[] separater and handles the issue where the current line i am reading may have went to the next line in the csv or text file <- IN which case i want to loop until I get to the total number of lines in the first row (columns)

public static DataTable ImportCSV(string fullPath, string[] sepString)
    {
        DataTable dt = new DataTable();
        using (StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(fullPath))
        {
           //stream uses using statement because it implements iDisposable
            string firstLine = sr.ReadLine();
            var headers = firstLine.Split(sepString, StringSplitOptions.None);
            foreach (var header in headers)
            {
               //create column headers
                dt.Columns.Add(header);
            }
            int columnInterval = headers.Count();
            string newLine = sr.ReadLine();
            while (newLine != null)
            {
                //loop adds each row to the datatable
                var fields = newLine.Split(sepString, StringSplitOptions.None); // csv delimiter    
                var currentLength = fields.Count();
                if (currentLength < columnInterval)
                {
                    while (currentLength < columnInterval)
                    {
                       //if the count of items in the row is less than the column row go to next line until count matches column number total
                        newLine += sr.ReadLine();
                        currentLength = newLine.Split(sepString, StringSplitOptions.None).Count();
                    }
                    fields = newLine.Split(sepString, StringSplitOptions.None);
                }
                if (currentLength > columnInterval)
                {  
                    //ideally never executes - but if csv row has too many separators, line is skipped
                    newLine = sr.ReadLine();
                    continue;
                }
                dt.Rows.Add(fields);
                newLine = sr.ReadLine();
            }
            sr.Close();
        }

        return dt;
    }

Answer 5

Modified from Mr ChuckBevitt

Working solution:

string CSVFilePathName = APP_PATH + "Facilities.csv";
string[] Lines = File.ReadAllLines(CSVFilePathName);
string[] Fields;
Fields = Lines[0].Split(new char[] { ',' });
int Cols = Fields.GetLength(0);
DataTable dt = new DataTable();
//1st row must be column names; force lower case to ensure matching later on.
for (int i = 0; i < Cols-1; i++)
        dt.Columns.Add(Fields[i].ToLower(), typeof(string));
DataRow Row;
for (int i = 0; i < Lines.GetLength(0)-1; i++)
{
        Fields = Lines[i].Split(new char[] { ',' });
        Row = dt.NewRow();
        for (int f = 0; f < Cols-1; f++)
                Row[f] = Fields[f];
        dt.Rows.Add(Row);
}