How do I handle line breaks in a CSV file using C#?

Question

I have an Excel spreadsheet being converted into a CSV file in C#, but am having a problem dealing with line breaks. For instance:

\"John\",\"23\",\"555-555         


        

Answer 1

I've used this piece of code recently to parse rows from a CSV file (this is a simplified version):

private void Parse(TextReader reader)
    {
        var row = new List();
        var isStringBlock = false;
        var sb = new StringBuilder();

        long charIndex = 0;
        int currentLineCount = 0;

        while (reader.Peek() != -1)
        {
            charIndex++;

            char c = (char)reader.Read();

            if (c == '"')
                isStringBlock = !isStringBlock;

            if (c == separator && !isStringBlock) //end of word
            {
                row.Add(sb.ToString().Trim()); //add word
                sb.Length = 0;
            }
            else if (c == '\n' && !isStringBlock) //end of line
            {
                row.Add(sb.ToString().Trim()); //add last word in line
                sb.Length = 0;

                //DO SOMETHING WITH row HERE!

                currentLineCount++;

                row = new List();
            }
            else
            {
                if (c != '"' && c != '\r') sb.Append(c == '\n' ? ' ' : c);
            }
        }

        row.Add(sb.ToString().Trim()); //add last word

        //DO SOMETHING WITH LAST row HERE!
    }