CSV string handling

Question

Typical way of creating a CSV string (pseudocode):

1. Create a CSV container object (like a StringBuilder in C#).
2. Loop through the strings you want to ad

Answer 1

Don't forget our old friend "for". It's not as nice-looking as foreach but it has the advantage of being able to start at the second element.

public string ReturnAsCSV(ContactList contactList)
{
    if (contactList == null || contactList.Count == 0)
        return string.Empty;

    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(contactList[0].Name);

    for (int i = 1; i < contactList.Count; i++)
    {
        sb.Append(",");
        sb.Append(contactList[i].Name);
    }

    return sb.ToString();
}

You could also wrap the second Append in an "if" that tests whether the Name property contains a double-quote or a comma, and if so, escape them appropriately.