How to read a CSV file into a .NET Datatable

Question

How can I load a CSV file into a System.Data.DataTable, creating the datatable based on the CSV file?

Does the regular ADO.net functionality allow this?

Answer 1

I use a library called ExcelDataReader, you can find it on NuGet. Be sure to install both ExcelDataReader and the ExcelDataReader.DataSet extension (the latter provides the required AsDataSet method referenced below).

I encapsulated everything in one function, you can copy it in your code directly. Give it a path to CSV file, it gets you a dataset with one table.

public static DataSet GetDataSet(string filepath)
{
   var stream = File.OpenRead(filepath);

   try
   {
       var reader = ExcelReaderFactory.CreateCsvReader(stream, new ExcelReaderConfiguration()
       {
           LeaveOpen = false
       });

       var result = reader.AsDataSet(new ExcelDataSetConfiguration()
       {
           // Gets or sets a value indicating whether to set the DataColumn.DataType 
           // property in a second pass.
           UseColumnDataType = true,

           // Gets or sets a callback to determine whether to include the current sheet
           // in the DataSet. Called once per sheet before ConfigureDataTable.
           FilterSheet = (tableReader, sheetIndex) => true,

           // Gets or sets a callback to obtain configuration options for a DataTable. 
           ConfigureDataTable = (tableReader) => new ExcelDataTableConfiguration()
           {
               // Gets or sets a value indicating the prefix of generated column names.
               EmptyColumnNamePrefix = "Column",

               // Gets or sets a value indicating whether to use a row from the 
               // data as column names.
               UseHeaderRow = true,

               // Gets or sets a callback to determine which row is the header row. 
               // Only called when UseHeaderRow = true.
               ReadHeaderRow = (rowReader) =>
               {
                   // F.ex skip the first row and use the 2nd row as column headers:
                   //rowReader.Read();
               },

               // Gets or sets a callback to determine whether to include the 
               // current row in the DataTable.
               FilterRow = (rowReader) =>
               {
                   return true;
               },

               // Gets or sets a callback to determine whether to include the specific
               // column in the DataTable. Called once per column after reading the 
               // headers.
               FilterColumn = (rowReader, columnIndex) =>
               {
                   return true;
               }
           }
       });

       return result;
   }
   catch (Exception ex)
   {
       return null;
   }
   finally
   {
       stream.Close();
       stream.Dispose();
   }
}