Reading CSV files using C#

Question

I'm writing a simple import application and need to read a CSV file, show result in a DataGrid and show corrupted lines of the CSV file in another grid. For example, show the lines that are shorter than 5 values in another grid. I'm trying to do that like this:

StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(FilePath);
importingData = new Account();
string line;
string[] row = new string [5];
while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null)
{
    row = line.Split(',');

    importingData.Add(new Transaction
    {
        Date = DateTime.Parse(row[0]),
        Reference = row[1],
        Description = row[2],
        Amount = decimal.Parse(row[3]),
        Category = (Category)Enum.Parse(typeof(Category), row[4])
    });
}

but it's very difficult to operate on arrays in this case. Is there a better way to split the values?

Answer 1

Don't reinvent the wheel. Take advantage of what's already in .NET BCL.

• add a reference to the Microsoft.VisualBasic (yes, it says VisualBasic but it works in C# just as well - remember that at the end it is all just IL)
• use the Microsoft.VisualBasic.FileIO.TextFieldParser class to parse CSV file

Here is the sample code:

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

It works great for me in my C# projects.

Here are some more links/informations:

• MSDN: Read From Comma-Delimited Text Files in Visual Basic
• MSDN: TextFieldParser Class