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

Your code not really compliant with full CSV format. If you are just generating CSV from data that has no commas, leading/trailing spaces, tabs, newlines or quotes, it should be fine. However, in most real-world data-exchange scenarios, you do need the full imlementation.

For generation to proper CSV, you can use this:

public static String EncodeCsvLine(params String[] fields)
{
    StringBuilder line = new StringBuilder();

    for (int i = 0; i < fields.Length; i++)
    {
        if (i > 0)
        {
            line.Append(DelimiterChar);
        }

        String csvField = EncodeCsvField(fields[i]);
        line.Append(csvField);
    }

    return line.ToString();
}

static String EncodeCsvField(String field)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    sb.Append(field);

    // Some fields with special characters must be embedded in double quotes
    bool embedInQuotes = false;

    // Embed in quotes to preserve leading/tralining whitespace
    if (sb.Length > 0 && 
        (sb[0] == ' ' || 
         sb[0] == '\t' ||
         sb[sb.Length-1] == ' ' || 
         sb[sb.Length-1] == '\t' ))
    {
        embedInQuotes = true;
    }

    for (int i = 0; i < sb.Length; i++)
    {
        // Embed in quotes to preserve: commas, line-breaks etc.
        if (sb[i] == DelimiterChar || 
            sb[i]=='\r' || 
            sb[i]=='\n' || 
            sb[i] == '"') 
        { 
            embedInQuotes = true;
            break;
        }
    }

    // If the field itself has quotes, they must each be represented 
    // by a pair of consecutive quotes.
    sb.Replace("\"", "\"\"");

    String rv = sb.ToString();

    if (embedInQuotes)
    {
        rv = "\"" + rv + "\"";
    }

    return rv;
}

Might not be world's most efficient code, but it has been tested. Real world sucks compared to quick sample code :)

Answer 2

Just a thought, but remember to handle comma's and quotation marks (") in the field values, otherwise your CSV file may break the consumers reader.

Answer 3

How about tracking whether you are on the first item, and only add a comma before the item if it is not the first one.

public string ReturnAsCSV(ContactList contactList)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    bool isFirst = true;

    foreach (Contact c in contactList) {
        if (!isFirst) { 
          // Only add comma before item if it is not the first item
          sb.Append(","); 
        } else {
          isFirst = false;
        }

        sb.Append(c.Name);
    }

    return sb.ToString();
}

Answer 4

I use CSVHelper - it's a great open-source library that lets you generate compliant CSV streams one element at a time or custom-map your classes:

public string ReturnAsCSV(ContactList contactList)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    using (StringWriter stringWriter = new StringWriter(sb))
    {
        using (var csvWriter = new CsvHelper.CsvWriter(stringWriter))
        {
            csvWriter.Configuration.HasHeaderRecord = false;
            foreach (Contact c in contactList)
            {
                csvWriter.WriteField(c.Name);
            }
        }
    }
    return sb.ToString();
}

or if you map then something like this: csvWriter.WriteRecords<ContactList>(contactList);

Answer 5

You could also make an array of c.Name data and use String.Join method to create your line.

public string ReturnAsCSV(ContactList contactList)
{
    List<String> tmpList = new List<string>();

    foreach (Contact c in contactList)
    {
        tmpList.Add(c.Name);
    }

    return String.Join(",", tmpList.ToArray());
}

This might not be as performant as the StringBuilder approach, but it definitely looks cleaner.

Also, you might want to consider using .CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ListSeparator instead of a hard-coded comma -- If your output is going to be imported into other applications, you might have problems with it. ListSeparator may be different across different cultures, and MS Excel at the very least, honors this setting. So:

return String.Join(
    System.Globalization.CultureInfo.CurrentCulture.TextInfo.ListSeparator,
    tmpList.ToArray());

Answer 6

I wrote a small class for this in case someone else finds it useful...

public class clsCSVBuilder
{
    protected int _CurrentIndex = -1;
    protected List<string> _Headers = new List<string>();
    protected List<List<string>> _Records = new List<List<string>>();
    protected const string SEPERATOR = ",";

    public clsCSVBuilder() { }

    public void CreateRow()
    {
        _Records.Add(new List<string>());
        _CurrentIndex++;
    }

    protected string _EscapeString(string str)
    {
        return string.Format("\"{0}\"", str.Replace("\"", "\"\"")
                                            .Replace("\r\n", " ")
                                            .Replace("\n", " ")
                                            .Replace("\r", " "));
    }

    protected void _AddRawString(string item)
    {
        _Records[_CurrentIndex].Add(item);
    }

    public void AddHeader(string name)
    {
        _Headers.Add(_EscapeString(name));
    }

    public void AddRowItem(string item)
    {
        _AddRawString(_EscapeString(item));
    }

    public void AddRowItem(int item)
    {
        _AddRawString(item.ToString());
    }

    public void AddRowItem(double item)
    {
        _AddRawString(item.ToString());
    }

    public void AddRowItem(DateTime date)
    {
        AddRowItem(date.ToShortDateString());
    }

    public static string GenerateTempCSVPath()
    {
        return Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), Guid.NewGuid().ToString().ToLower().Replace("-", "") + ".csv");
    }

    protected string _GenerateCSV()
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        if (_Headers.Count > 0)
        {
            sb.AppendLine(string.Join(SEPERATOR, _Headers.ToArray()));
        }

        foreach (List<string> row in _Records)
        {
            sb.AppendLine(string.Join(SEPERATOR, row.ToArray()));
        }

        return sb.ToString();
    }

    public void SaveAs(string path)
    {
        using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(path))
        {
            sw.Write(_GenerateCSV());
        }
    }
}