Print Contents Of A DataTable

Question

Currently I have code which looks up a database table through a SQL connection and inserts the top five rows into a Datatable (Table).

using(SqlCommand _cmd          


        

Answer 1

Building on another answer here, here's a method that converts a DataTable to CSV output and adds the column names as the first row in the output:

public static string DataTableToCsv(DataTable table)
{
    string result = string.Empty;
    StringBuilder resultBuilder = new StringBuilder();

    if (table != null && table.Rows != null && table.Columns != null && table.Columns.Count > 0)
    {
        int lastItemIndex = table.Columns.Count - 1;
        int index = 0;

        foreach (DataColumn column in table.Columns)
        {
            resultBuilder.Append(column.ColumnName);

            if (index < lastItemIndex)       // if not the last element in the row
                resultBuilder.Append(", ");  // add the separator

            index++;
        }

        resultBuilder.AppendLine();  // add a CRLF after column names row

        foreach (DataRow dataRow in table.Rows)
        {
            lastItemIndex = dataRow.ItemArray.Length - 1;
            index = 0;

            foreach (object item in dataRow.ItemArray)
            {
                resultBuilder.Append(item);

                if (index < lastItemIndex)       // if not the last element in the row
                    resultBuilder.Append(", ");  // add the separator

                index++;
            }

            resultBuilder.AppendLine();  // add a CRLF after each data row
        }

        result = resultBuilder.ToString();
    }

    return result;
}

Usage example:

DataTable table = new DataTable();
....
Console.WriteLine(DataTableToCsv(table));

Note that this method does not properly handle (i.e., escape) data that contains quotes or commas. But it should be sufficient as a quick and dirty way to dump a data table to the console or anywhere else for viewing.