Is there a “proper” way to read CSV files [duplicate]

Answer 1

CsvReader is a pretty good one... it isn't Microsoft, but it works very well, and is a lot faster than some of the alternatives (legacy OleDb etc).

Answer 2

KBCsv is another option, particularly if you require efficiency and the ability to work with massive CSV files.

Disclosure: I wrote KBCsv, hence the "KB" ;)

Answer 3

After some more investigation, there is also this: http://www.filehelpers.com/

It seems a full framework around reading files, and not just csv files.

(note: just read stuff on the website, have not used it yet)

Answer 4

I'm pretty sure you can read a CSV file into a DataTable with one line of code. Once it's in a DataTable, you can sort, filter, iterate etc.

This question has some examples for reading CSVs into DataTables.

Answer 5

The VB namespace has a great TextFieldParser class. I know, c# people don't like to reference a library from that 'basic' language, but it is quite good.

It is located at Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.TextFieldParser

I used to mess with OLEDB, creating column definition files etc - but find the TextFieldParser a very simple and handy tool for parsing any delimited files.

Answer 6

Try CsvHelper (a library I maintain). It's also available via NuGet.

CsvHelper allows you to read your CSV file directly into your custom class.

var streamReader = // Create a reader to your CSV file.
var csvReader = new CsvReader( streamReader );
List<MyCustomType> myData = csvReader.GetRecords<MyCustomType>();

CsvReader will automatically figure out how to match the property names based on the header row (this is configurable). It uses compiled expression trees instead of reflection, so it's very fast.

It is also very extensible and configurable.