Parsing CSV files in C#, with header

Question

Is there a default/official/recommended way to parse CSV files in C#? I don\'t want to roll my own parser.

Also, I\'ve seen instances of people using ODBC/OLE DB to

Answer 1

Single source file solution for straightforward parsing needs, useful. Deals with all the nasty edge cases. Such as new line normalization and handling new lines in quoted string literals. Your welcome!

If you CSV file has a header you just read out the column names (and compute column indexes) from the first row. Simple as that.

Note that Dump is a LINQPad method, you might want to remove that if you are not using LINQPad.

void Main()
{
    var file1 = "a,b,c\r\nx,y,z";
    CSV.ParseText(file1).Dump();

    var file2 = "a,\"b\",c\r\nx,\"y,z\"";
    CSV.ParseText(file2).Dump();

    var file3 = "a,\"b\",c\r\nx,\"y\r\nz\"";
    CSV.ParseText(file3).Dump();

    var file4 = "\"\"\"\"";
    CSV.ParseText(file4).Dump();
}

static class CSV
{
    public struct Record
    {
        public readonly string[] Row;

        public string this[int index] => Row[index];

        public Record(string[] row)
        {
            Row = row;
        }
    }

    public static List<Record> ParseText(string text)
    {
        return Parse(new StringReader(text));
    }

    public static List<Record> ParseFile(string fn)
    {
        using (var reader = File.OpenText(fn))
        {
            return Parse(reader);
        }
    }

    public static List<Record> Parse(TextReader reader)
    {
        var data = new List<Record>();

        var col = new StringBuilder();
        var row = new List<string>();
        for (; ; )
        {
            var ln = reader.ReadLine();
            if (ln == null) break;
            if (Tokenize(ln, col, row))
            {
                data.Add(new Record(row.ToArray()));
                row.Clear();
            }
        }

        return data;
    }

    public static bool Tokenize(string s, StringBuilder col, List<string> row)
    {
        int i = 0;

        if (col.Length > 0)
        {
            col.AppendLine(); // continuation

            if (!TokenizeQuote(s, ref i, col, row))
            {
                return false;
            }
        }

        while (i < s.Length)
        {
            var ch = s[i];
            if (ch == ',')
            {
                row.Add(col.ToString().Trim());
                col.Length = 0;
                i++;
            }
            else if (ch == '"')
            {
                i++;
                if (!TokenizeQuote(s, ref i, col, row))
                {
                    return false;
                }
            }
            else
            {
                col.Append(ch);
                i++;
            }
        }

        if (col.Length > 0)
        {
            row.Add(col.ToString().Trim());
            col.Length = 0;
        }

        return true;
    }

    public static bool TokenizeQuote(string s, ref int i, StringBuilder col, List<string> row)
    {
        while (i < s.Length)
        {
            var ch = s[i];
            if (ch == '"')
            {
                // escape sequence
                if (i + 1 < s.Length && s[i + 1] == '"')
                {
                    col.Append('"');
                    i++;
                    i++;
                    continue;
                }
                i++;
                return true;
            }
            else
            {
                col.Append(ch);
                i++;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }
}

Answer 2

Another one to this list, Cinchoo ETL - an open source library to read and write multiple file formats (CSV, flat file, Xml, JSON etc)

Sample below shows how to read CSV file quickly (No POCO object required)

string csv = @"Id, Name
1, Carl
2, Tom
3, Mark";

using (var p = ChoCSVReader.LoadText(csv)
    .WithFirstLineHeader()
    )
{
    foreach (var rec in p)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Id: {rec.Id}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Name: {rec.Name}");
    }
}

Sample below shows how to read CSV file using POCO object

public partial class EmployeeRec
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

static void CSVTest()
{
    string csv = @"Id, Name
1, Carl
2, Tom
3, Mark";

    using (var p = ChoCSVReader<EmployeeRec>.LoadText(csv)
        .WithFirstLineHeader()
        )
    {
        foreach (var rec in p)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Id: {rec.Id}");
            Console.WriteLine($"Name: {rec.Name}");
        }
    }
}

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

Answer 3

This code reads csv to DataTable:

public static DataTable ReadCsv(string path)
{
    DataTable result = new DataTable("SomeData");
    using (TextFieldParser parser = new TextFieldParser(path))
    {
        parser.TextFieldType = FieldType.Delimited;
        parser.SetDelimiters(",");
        bool isFirstRow = true;
        //IList<string> headers = new List<string>();

        while (!parser.EndOfData)
        {
            string[] fields = parser.ReadFields();
            if (isFirstRow)
            {
                foreach (string field in fields)
                {
                    result.Columns.Add(new DataColumn(field, typeof(string)));
                }
                isFirstRow = false;
            }
            else
            {
                int i = 0;
                DataRow row = result.NewRow();
                foreach (string field in fields)
                {
                    row[i++] = field;
                }
                result.Rows.Add(row);
            }
        }
    }
    return result;
}

Answer 4

A CSV parser is now a part of .NET Framework.

Add a reference to Microsoft.VisualBasic.dll (works fine in C#, don't mind the name)

using (TextFieldParser parser = new TextFieldParser(@"c:\temp\test.csv"))
{
    parser.TextFieldType = FieldType.Delimited;
    parser.SetDelimiters(",");
    while (!parser.EndOfData)
    {
        //Process row
        string[] fields = parser.ReadFields();
        foreach (string field in fields)
        {
            //TODO: Process field
        }
    }
}

The docs are here - TextFieldParser Class

P.S. If you need a CSV exporter, try CsvExport (discl: I'm one of the contributors)

Answer 5

If anyone wants a snippet they can plop into their code without having to bind a library or download a package. Here is a version I wrote:

    public static string FormatCSV(List<string> parts)
    {
        string result = "";

        foreach (string s in parts)
        {
            if (result.Length > 0)
            {
                result += ",";

                if (s.Length == 0)
                    continue;
            }

            if (s.Length > 0)
            {
                result += "\"" + s.Replace("\"", "\"\"") + "\"";
            }
            else
            {
                // cannot output double quotes since its considered an escape for a quote
                result += ",";
            }
        }

        return result;
    }

    enum CSVMode
    {
        CLOSED = 0,
        OPENED_RAW = 1,
        OPENED_QUOTE = 2
    }

    public static List<string> ParseCSV(string input)
    {
        List<string> results;

        CSVMode mode;

        char[] letters;

        string content;


        mode = CSVMode.CLOSED;

        content = "";
        results = new List<string>();
        letters = input.ToCharArray();

        for (int i = 0; i < letters.Length; i++)
        {
            char letter = letters[i];
            char nextLetter = '\0';

            if (i < letters.Length - 1)
                nextLetter = letters[i + 1];

            // If its a quote character
            if (letter == '"')
            {
                // If that next letter is a quote
                if (nextLetter == '"' && mode == CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE)
                {
                    // Then this quote is escaped and should be added to the content

                    content += letter;

                    // Skip the escape character
                    i++;
                    continue;
                }
                else
                {
                    // otherwise its not an escaped quote and is an opening or closing one
                    // Character is skipped

                    // If it was open, then close it
                    if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE)
                    {
                        results.Add(content);

                        // reset the content
                        content = "";

                        mode = CSVMode.CLOSED;

                        // If there is a next letter available
                        if (nextLetter != '\0')
                        {
                            // If it is a comma
                            if (nextLetter == ',')
                            {
                                i++;
                                continue;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                throw new Exception("Expected comma. Found: " + nextLetter);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    else if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_RAW)
                    {
                        // If it was opened raw, then just add the quote 
                        content += letter;
                    }
                    else if (mode == CSVMode.CLOSED)
                    {
                        // Otherwise open it as a quote 

                        mode = CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE;
                    }
                }
            }
            // If its a comma seperator
            else if (letter == ',')
            {
                // If in quote mode
                if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE)
                {
                    // Just read it
                    content += letter;
                }
                // If raw, then close the content
                else if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_RAW)
                {
                    results.Add(content);

                    content = "";

                    mode = CSVMode.CLOSED;
                }
                // If it was closed, then open it raw
                else if (mode == CSVMode.CLOSED)
                {
                    mode = CSVMode.OPENED_RAW;

                    results.Add(content);

                    content = "";
                }
            }
            else
            {
                // If opened quote, just read it
                if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE)
                {
                    content += letter;
                }
                // If opened raw, then read it
                else if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_RAW)
                {
                    content += letter;
                }
                // It closed, then open raw
                else if (mode == CSVMode.CLOSED)
                {
                    mode = CSVMode.OPENED_RAW;

                    content += letter;
                }
            }
        }

        // If it was still reading when the buffer finished
        if (mode != CSVMode.CLOSED)
        {
            results.Add(content);
        }

        return results;
    }