C# CSV Reader and Writer

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Introduction

I have lost count of the number of projects I have worked on that required me to write data in a CSV format and present it to the user for download. On a recent project, I decided that it would be a good idea to implement some classes that would simplify the process of reading from and writing to a CSV file.

I had a scan around on the web to find a simple solution to the problem. There were many classes that already do this, but I found them way too complex.

So I decided to build my own!

Using the Code

Below are a few samples of how the classes can be used. The classes have many constructor and method overloads that allow reading/writing from/to files, strings and streams.

Using the CsvReader Class

List<List<string>> records = new List<List<string>>();

using (CsvReader reader = new CsvReader(FilePath, Encoding.Default))
{
    while (reader.ReadNextRecord())
        records.Add(reader.Fields);
} 

The CsvReader class has the following properties:

• TrimColumns - Gets or sets whether column and heading values should be trimmed
• HasHeaderRow - Gets or sets whether the CSV content has a header row
• Fields - Gets the fields in the current Record
• FieldCount - Gets the number of fields in the current record

Using the CsvFile Class

  CsvFile file = new CsvFile();
  file.Populate(FilePath, true);  

The CsvFile class has the following properties:

• Headers - Gets the column headers
• Records - Gets the records within the CSV file
• HeaderCount - Gets the number of header columns
• RecordsCount - Gets the number of records within the CSV file

Using the CsvWriter Class

  CsvFile csvFile = new CsvFile();
  csvFile.Populate(FilePath, true);

  using (CsvWriter writer = new CsvWriter())
  {
     writer.WriteCsv(csvFile, FilePath);
  }

The CsvWriter class has the following properties:

• ReplaceCarriageReturnsAndLineFeedsFromFieldValues - Gets or sets whether carriage returns and line feeds should be replaced in field values.
• CarriageReturnAndLineFeedReplacement - Gets or sets the character replacement for carriage returns and line feeds.

History

Version 1.0 (22-06-2010)

• 1.0: First release