How to make a csv in a byte[]?

Question

I would like to know how I should make a method that makes a csv file in a byte[].

At the moment I'm using something like this:

 public byte[] makeCsv(){
      StringBuffer csv= new StringBuffer();
      csv.append("columnheader1;columnheader2\r\n");
      csv.append("cell1;cell2\r\n");
      //...
      return csv.toString().getBytes();
 }

I know I should be using streams but I don't now which ones. Whats the best way to do this(without IO access)?

Answer 1

Without IO, your way is just fine. The following is a slight improvement.

  StringBuilder csv= new StringBuilder(); // Faster
  csv.append("columnheader1;columnheader2\r\n");
  csv.append("cell1;cell2\r\n");
  //...
  return csv.toString().getBytes("windows-1252"); // Windows Latin-1

You could use a StringWriter too.

Or write to a ByteArrayOutputStream (in-memory IO) with a PrintWriter.