Convert DataTable to generic List?

Question

    public static IList ConvertTo(DataTable table)
    {
        if (table == null)
        {
            return null;
        }

        List

        

Answer 1

That won't be an actual leak, but it could be stressing things unnecessarily...

How many rows are you working over? Note that reflection is a pain, and that every call to things like GetCustomAttributes can return a new array (so you want to do that once, not once per-property-per-row).

Personally, I'd pre-construct the work I intend to do... something like below.

Note that if I was doing this lots, I'd either switch to HyperDescriptor, or if .NET 3.5 was an option, maybe a compiled Expression. Since DataTable isn't strongly typed, HyperDescriptor would be a logical next step (for performance) after the below...

sealed class Tuple<T1, T2>
{
    public Tuple() {}
    public Tuple(T1 value1, T2 value2) {Value1 = value1; Value2 = value2;}
    public T1 Value1 {get;set;}
    public T2 Value2 {get;set;}
}
public static List<T> Convert<T>(DataTable table)
    where T : class, new()
{
    List<Tuple<DataColumn, PropertyInfo>> map =
        new List<Tuple<DataColumn,PropertyInfo>>();

    foreach(PropertyInfo pi in typeof(T).GetProperties())
    {
        ColumnAttribute col = (ColumnAttribute)
            Attribute.GetCustomAttribute(pi, typeof(ColumnAttribute));
        if(col == null) continue;
        if(table.Columns.Contains(col.FieldName))
        {
            map.Add(new Tuple<DataColumn,PropertyInfo>(
                table.Columns[col.FieldName], pi));
        }
    }

    List<T> list = new List<T>(table.Rows.Count);
    foreach(DataRow row in table.Rows)
    {
        if(row == null)
        {
            list.Add(null);
            continue;
        }
        T item = new T();
        foreach(Tuple<DataColumn,PropertyInfo> pair in map) {
            object value = row[pair.Value1];
            if(value is DBNull) value = null;
            pair.Value2.SetValue(item, value, null);
        }
        list.Add(item);
    }
    return list;        
}