Importing CSV data into C# classes

Question

I know how to read and display a line of a .csv file. Now I would like to parse that file, store its contents in arrays, and use those arrays as values for some classes I cr

Answer 1

Creating array to keep the information is not a very good idea, as you don't know how many lines will be in the input file. What would be the initial size of your Array ?? I would advise you to use for example a Generic List to keep the information (E.g. List<>).

You can also add a constructor to your Sport Class that accepts an array (result of the split action as described in above answer.

Additionally you can provide some conversions in the setters

public class Sport
{
    private string sport;
    private DateTime date;
    private string team1;
    private string team2;
    private string score;

    public Sport(string[] csvArray)
    {
        this.sport = csvArray[0];
        this.team1 = csvArray[2];
        this.team2 = csvArray[3];
        this.date = Convert.ToDateTime(csvArray[1]);
        this.score = String.Format("{0}-{1}", csvArray[4], csvArray[5]);
    }

Just for simplicity I wrote the Convert Method, but keep in mind this is also not a very safe way unless you are sure that the DateField always contains valid Dates and Score always contains Numeric Values. You can try other safer methods like tryParse or some Exception Handling.

I all honesty, it must add that the above solution is simple (as requested), on a conceptual level I would advise against it. Putting the mapping logic between attributes and the csv-file in the class will make the sports-class too dependent on the file itself and thus less reusable. Any later changes in the file structure should then be reflected in your class and can often be overlooked. Therefore it would be wiser to put your “mapping & conversion” logic in the main program and keep your class a clean as possible

(Changed your "Score" issue by formatting it as 2 strings combined with a hyphen)