How to create CSV Excel file C#? [closed]

Question

Slightly different version I wrote using reflection for my needs. I had to export a list of objects to csv. In case someone wants to use it for future.

public class CsvExport<T> where T: class
    {
        public List<T> Objects;

        public CsvExport(List<T> objects)
        {
            Objects = objects;
        }

        public string Export()
        {
            return Export(true);
        }

        public string Export(bool includeHeaderLine)
        {

            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            //Get properties using reflection.
            IList<PropertyInfo> propertyInfos = typeof(T).GetProperties();

            if (includeHeaderLine)
            {
                //add header line.
                foreach (PropertyInfo propertyInfo in propertyInfos)
                {
                    sb.Append(propertyInfo.Name).Append(",");
                }
                sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1).AppendLine();
            }

            //add value for each property.
            foreach (T obj in Objects)
            {               
                foreach (PropertyInfo propertyInfo in propertyInfos)
                {
                    sb.Append(MakeValueCsvFriendly(propertyInfo.GetValue(obj, null))).Append(",");
                }
                sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1).AppendLine();
            }

            return sb.ToString();
        }

        //export to a file.
        public void ExportToFile(string path)
        {
            File.WriteAllText(path, Export());
        }

        //export as binary data.
        public byte[] ExportToBytes()
        {
            return Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Export());
        }

        //get the csv value for field.
        private string MakeValueCsvFriendly(object value)
        {
            if (value == null) return "";
            if (value is Nullable && ((INullable)value).IsNull) return "";

            if (value is DateTime)
            {
                if (((DateTime)value).TimeOfDay.TotalSeconds == 0)
                    return ((DateTime)value).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");
                return ((DateTime)value).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
            }
            string output = value.ToString();

            if (output.Contains(",") || output.Contains("\""))
                output = '"' + output.Replace("\"", "\"\"") + '"';

            return output;

        }
    }

Usage sample : (updated per comment)

CsvExport<BusinessObject> csv= new CsvExport<BusinessObject>(GetBusinessObjectList());
Response.Write(csv.Export());

Please forgive me

But I think a public open-source repository is a better way to share code and make contributions, and corrections, and additions like "I fixed this, I fixed that"

So I made a simple git-repository out of the topic-starter's code and all the additions:

https://github.com/jitbit/CsvExport

I also added a couple of useful fixes myself. Everyone could add suggestions, fork it to contribute etc. etc. etc. Send me your forks so I merge them back into the repo.

PS. I posted all copyright notices for Chris. @Chris if you're against this idea - let me know, I'll kill it.

Another good solution to read and write CSV-files is filehelpers (open source).

How about using string.Join instead of all the foreach Loops?

If anyone would like I converted this to an extension method on IEnumerable:

public static class ListExtensions
{
    public static string ExportAsCSV<T>(this IEnumerable<T> listToExport, bool includeHeaderLine, string delimeter)
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        IList<PropertyInfo> propertyInfos = typeof(T).GetProperties();

        if (includeHeaderLine)
        {
            foreach (PropertyInfo propertyInfo in propertyInfos)
            {
                sb.Append(propertyInfo.Name).Append(",");
            }
            sb.Remove(sb.Length - 1, 1).AppendLine();
        }

        foreach (T obj in listToExport)
        {
            T localObject = obj;

            var line = String.Join(delimeter, propertyInfos.Select(x => SanitizeValuesForCSV(x.GetValue(localObject, null), delimeter)));

            sb.AppendLine(line);
        }

        return sb.ToString();
    }

    private static string SanitizeValuesForCSV(object value, string delimeter)
    {
        string output;

        if (value == null) return "";

        if (value is DateTime)
        {
            output = ((DateTime)value).ToLongDateString();
        }
        else
        {
            output = value.ToString();                
        }

        if (output.Contains(delimeter) || output.Contains("\""))
            output = '"' + output.Replace("\"", "\"\"") + '"';

        output = output.Replace("\n", " ");
        output = output.Replace("\r", "");

        return output;
    }
}

great work on this class. Simple and easy to use. I modified the class to include a title in the first row of the export; figured I would share:

use:

CsvExport myExport = new CsvExport();
myExport.addTitle = String.Format("Name: {0},{1}", lastName, firstName));

class:

public class CsvExport
{
    List<string> fields = new List<string>();

    public string addTitle { get; set; } // string for the first row of the export

    List<Dictionary<string, object>> rows = new List<Dictionary<string, object>>();
    Dictionary<string, object> currentRow
    {
        get
        {
            return rows[rows.Count - 1];
        }
    }

    public object this[string field]
    {
        set
        {
            if (!fields.Contains(field)) fields.Add(field);
            currentRow[field] = value;
        }
    }

    public void AddRow()
    {
        rows.Add(new Dictionary<string, object>());
    }

    string MakeValueCsvFriendly(object value)
    {
        if (value == null) return "";
        if (value is Nullable && ((INullable)value).IsNull) return "";
        if (value is DateTime)
        {
            if (((DateTime)value).TimeOfDay.TotalSeconds == 0)
                return ((DateTime)value).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd");
            return ((DateTime)value).ToString("yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss");
        }
        string output = value.ToString();
        if (output.Contains(",") || output.Contains("\""))
            output = '"' + output.Replace("\"", "\"\"") + '"';
        return output;

    }

    public string Export()
    {
        StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();

        // if there is a title
        if (!string.IsNullOrEmpty(addTitle))
        {
            // escape chars that would otherwise break the row / export
            char[] csvTokens = new[] { '\"', ',', '\n', '\r' };

            if (addTitle.IndexOfAny(csvTokens) >= 0)
            {
                addTitle = "\"" + addTitle.Replace("\"", "\"\"") + "\"";
            }
            sb.Append(addTitle).Append(",");
            sb.AppendLine();
        }


        // The header
        foreach (string field in fields)
        sb.Append(field).Append(",");
        sb.AppendLine();

        // The rows
        foreach (Dictionary<string, object> row in rows)
        {
            foreach (string field in fields)
                sb.Append(MakeValueCsvFriendly(row[field])).Append(",");
            sb.AppendLine();
        }

        return sb.ToString();
    }

    public void ExportToFile(string path)
    {
        File.WriteAllText(path, Export());
    }

    public byte[] ExportToBytes()
    {
        return Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes(Export());
    }
}