How to skip some empty rows in csv file and continue reading rows with data? c# console application

Question

I do have have 5 column within my CVS file, the first two columns have 3 empty rows. I would like to skip these empty rows. I know that I have to loop through the file howev

Answer 1

Use a Where clause to keep only rows that are not NullOrWhiteSpace (null, empty or only white spaces):

public static IList ReadFile(string fileName)
{
    return File.ReadAllLines(fileName)
               .Where(line => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(line))
               .ToList();
}

---

After better understanding what you are after for then: For each line use Split to get the different columns and then check that the first 2 are not empty:

public static IList ReadFile(string fileName)
{
    return (from line in File.ReadAllLines(fileName)
            where !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(line)
            let columns = line.Split(',')
            where columns.Length >= 2 && 
                !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(columns[0]) &&
                !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(columns[1])
            select line).ToList();
}

Changed to syntax query just because in my opinion it is cleaer when we start needing things like let

---

If what you want is get all the column values from the file without the empty ones then:

public static IList ReadFile(string fileName)
{
    File.ReadAllLines(fileName)
        .SelectMany(line => line.Split(','))
        .Where(item => !string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(item))
        .ToList();
}