How do I transform a List<T> into a DataSet?

Question

Given a list of objects, I am needing to transform it into a dataset where each item in the list is represented by a row and each property is a column in the row. This DataSet will then be passed to an Aspose.Cells function in order to create an Excel document as a report.

Say I have the following:

public class Record
{
   public int ID { get; set; }
   public bool Status { get; set; }
   public string Message { get; set; }
}

Given a List records, how do I transform it into a DataSet as follows:

ID Status Message
1  true   "message" 
2  false  "message2" 
3  true   "message3" 
...

At the moment the only thing I can think of is as follows:

DataSet ds = new DataSet
ds.Tables.Add();
ds.Tables[0].Add("ID", typeof(int));    
ds.Tables[0].Add("Status", typeof(bool));
ds.Tables[0].Add("Message", typeof(string));

foreach(Record record in records)
{
    ds.Tables[0].Rows.Add(record.ID, record.Status, record.Message);
}

But this way leaves me thinking there must be a better way since at the very least if new properties are added to Record then they won't show up in the DataSet...but at the same time it allows me to control the order each property is added to the row.

Does anyone know of a better way to do this?

Answer 1

You can do it through reflection and generics, inspecting the properties of the underlying type.

Consider this extension method that I use:

    public static DataTable ToDataTable<T>(this IEnumerable<T> collection)
    {
        DataTable dt = new DataTable("DataTable");
        Type t = typeof(T);
        PropertyInfo[] pia = t.GetProperties();

        //Inspect the properties and create the columns in the DataTable
        foreach (PropertyInfo pi in pia)
        {
            Type ColumnType = pi.PropertyType;
            if ((ColumnType.IsGenericType))
            {
                ColumnType = ColumnType.GetGenericArguments()[0];
            }
            dt.Columns.Add(pi.Name, ColumnType);
        }

        //Populate the data table
        foreach (T item in collection)
        {
            DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
            dr.BeginEdit();
            foreach (PropertyInfo pi in pia)
            {
                if (pi.GetValue(item, null) != null)
                {
                    dr[pi.Name] = pi.GetValue(item, null);
                }
            }
            dr.EndEdit();
            dt.Rows.Add(dr);
        }
        return dt;
    }

Answer 2

I found this code on Microsoft forum. This is so far one of easiest way, easy to understand and use. This has saved me hours. I have customized this as extension method without any change to actual implementaion. Below is the code. it doesn't require much explanation.

You can use two function signature with same implementation

1) public static DataSet ToDataSetFromObject(this object dsCollection)

2) public static DataSet ToDataSetFromArrayOfObject( this object[] arrCollection). I'll be using this one in below example.

// <summary>
// Serialize Object to XML and then read it into a DataSet:
// </summary>
// <param name="arrCollection">Array of object</param>
// <returns>dataset</returns>

public static DataSet ToDataSetFromArrayOfObject( this object[] arrCollection)
{
    DataSet ds = new DataSet();
    try {
        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(arrCollection.GetType);
        System.IO.StringWriter sw = new System.IO.StringWriter();
        serializer.Serialize(sw, dsCollection);
        System.IO.StringReader reader = new System.IO.StringReader(sw.ToString());
        ds.ReadXml(reader);
    } catch (Exception ex) {
        throw (new Exception("Error While Converting Array of Object to Dataset."));
    }
    return ds;
}

To use this extension in code

Country[] objArrayCountry = null;
objArrayCountry = ....;// populate your array
if ((objArrayCountry != null)) {
    dataset = objArrayCountry.ToDataSetFromArrayOfObject();
}