How can I convert a list of objects to csv?

Question

If I have a list of objects called "Car":

public class Car
{
     public string Name;
     public int Year;
     public string Model;
}

How do I convert a list of objects, e.g. List<Car> to a csv?

Answer 1

1. FileHelpers Library
2. Text OleDb Provider
3. Manual via String concatenation according to RFC-4180
4. Third party library, for example Aspose.Cells can do it without any friction from you. And it is very fast.

Answer 2

add the following method to Car:

String Escape(String s)
{
    StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
    bool needQuotes = false;
    foreach (char c in s.ToArray())
    {
        switch (c)
        {
            case '"': sb.Append("\\\""); needQuotes = true; break;
            case ' ': sb.Append(" "); needQuotes = true; break;
            case ',': sb.Append(","); needQuotes = true; break;
            case '\t': sb.Append("\\t"); needQuotes = true; break;
            case '\n': sb.Append("\\n"); needQuotes = true; break;
            default: sb.Append(c); break;
        }
    }
    if (needQuotes)
        return "\"" + sb.ToString() + "\"";
    else
        return sb.ToString();
}

public void SerializeAsCsv(Stream stream)
{
    stream.Write(Escape(Name));
    stream.Write(",");
    stream.Write(Year.ToString());
    stream.Write(",");
    stream.Write(Escape(Model));
    stream.Write("\n");
}

Now you can serialize the whole list:

foreach (Car car in list)
{
    car.SerializeAsCsv(stream);
}