How to use SQL against a CSV file

Question

I would like to use a SQL query on a CSV file using C#. There is something like this for java here. Is there anything like this for c#?

Answer 1

You can use the appropriate OLE DB provider to query the text file. You can find the query string here:

Textfile Connection String Samples

Answer 2

You can use ODBC to run a query against a CSV File :

// using System.Data.Odbc;

string strConn = @"Driver={Microsoft Text Driver (*.txt; *.csv)};" +
    "Dbq=C:;Extensions=csv,txt";

OdbcConnection objCSV = new OdbcConnection(strConn);
objCSV.Open();

OdbcCommand oCmd = new OdbcCommand("select column1,column2 " +
    "from THECSVFILE.CSV", objCSV);
OdbcDataReader oDR = oCmd.ExecuteReader();

while (oDR.Read())
{
    // Do something
}

Answer 3

So, do you mean using Linq?

Something like one of these?
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/wriju/archive/2009/05/24/linq-to-csv-getting-data-the-way-you-want.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/ericwhite/archive/2008/09/30/linq-to-text-and-linq-to-csv.aspx

Answer 4

// need to add
// using System.Linq;

void Main()
{
    var path = @"C:\myfile.csv";
    string csv = System.IO.File.ReadAllText( path );
    var array = csv.Split(new[]{","}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
    // Do the mapping with your databinding object
    var personArray = array.Select(p => new Person { Name = p}); 
   // You need to have this DataContext defined somewhere, for instance using LinqToSql
    using(var context = new PersonDataContext()){ 
        context.InsertAllOnSubmit(personArray);
        context.SubmitChanges();
    } 
}

// Imagine this class is one of linqToSql class
public class Person{
    public string Name {get;set;}
}

Answer 5

You can use Openrowsets .

Enable SQL Ad Hoc/Openrowset in SQL configuration first. Once enabled you'll be able to connect your SQL Server Managerment studio and query Excel and comma delimited files.

Your queries will look something like:

SELECT * FROM OPENROWSET('MSDASQL','Driver={Microsoft Text Driver (*.txt; *.csv)};DefaultDir={your path}','SELECT * FROM ypurtextfile.csv')

You can use these queries in your C# code just like you query any other tables. Just check with your manager that he's ok with you enabling ad hoc on the SQL Server