Parsing CSV files in C#, with header

Let a library handle all the nitty-gritty details for you! :-)

Check out FileHelpers and stay DRY - Don't Repeat Yourself - no need to re-invent the wheel a gazillionth time....

You basically just need to define that shape of your data - the fields in your individual line in the CSV - by means of a public class (and so well-thought out attributes like default values, replacements for NULL values and so forth), point the FileHelpers engine at a file, and bingo - you get back all the entries from that file. One simple operation - great performance!

In a business application, i use the Open Source project on codeproject.com, CSVReader.

It works well, and has good performance. There is some benchmarking on the link i provided.

A simple example, copied from the project page:

using (CsvReader csv = new CsvReader(new StreamReader("data.csv"), true))
{
    int fieldCount = csv.FieldCount;
    string[] headers = csv.GetFieldHeaders();

    while (csv.ReadNextRecord())
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < fieldCount; i++)
            Console.Write(string.Format("{0} = {1};", headers[i], csv[i]));

        Console.WriteLine();
    }
}

As you can see, it's very easy to work with.

If you need only reading csv files then I recommend this library: A Fast CSV Reader
If you also need to generate csv files then use this one: FileHelpers

Both of them are free and opensource.

Here is a helper class I use often, in case any one ever comes back to this thread (I wanted to share it).

I use this for the simplicity of porting it into projects ready to use:

public class CSVHelper : List<string[]>
{
  protected string csv = string.Empty;
  protected string separator = ",";

  public CSVHelper(string csv, string separator = "\",\"")
  {
    this.csv = csv;
    this.separator = separator;

    foreach (string line in Regex.Split(csv, System.Environment.NewLine).ToList().Where(s => !string.IsNullOrEmpty(s)))
    {
      string[] values = Regex.Split(line, separator);

      for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
      {
        //Trim values
        values[i] = values[i].Trim('\"');
      }

      this.Add(values);
    }
  }
}

And use it like:

public List<Person> GetPeople(string csvContent)
{
  List<Person> people = new List<Person>();
  CSVHelper csv = new CSVHelper(csvContent);
  foreach(string[] line in csv)
  {
    Person person = new Person();
    person.Name = line[0];
    person.TelephoneNo = line[1];
    people.Add(person);
  }
  return people;
}

[Updated csv helper: bug fixed where the last new line character created a new line]

Here is a short and simple solution.

                using (TextFieldParser parser = new TextFieldParser(outputLocation))
                 {
                        parser.TextFieldType = FieldType.Delimited;
                        parser.SetDelimiters(",");
                        string[] headers = parser.ReadLine().Split(',');
                        foreach (string header in headers)
                        {
                            dataTable.Columns.Add(header);
                        }
                        while (!parser.EndOfData)
                        {
                            string[] fields = parser.ReadFields();
                            dataTable.Rows.Add(fields);
                        }
                    }

Another one to this list, Cinchoo ETL - an open source library to read and write multiple file formats (CSV, flat file, Xml, JSON etc)

Sample below shows how to read CSV file quickly (No POCO object required)

string csv = @"Id, Name
1, Carl
2, Tom
3, Mark";

using (var p = ChoCSVReader.LoadText(csv)
    .WithFirstLineHeader()
    )
{
    foreach (var rec in p)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Id: {rec.Id}");
        Console.WriteLine($"Name: {rec.Name}");
    }
}

Sample below shows how to read CSV file using POCO object

public partial class EmployeeRec
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
}

static void CSVTest()
{
    string csv = @"Id, Name
1, Carl
2, Tom
3, Mark";

    using (var p = ChoCSVReader<EmployeeRec>.LoadText(csv)
        .WithFirstLineHeader()
        )
    {
        foreach (var rec in p)
        {
            Console.WriteLine($"Id: {rec.Id}");
            Console.WriteLine($"Name: {rec.Name}");
        }
    }
}

Please check out articles at CodeProject on how to use it.

Single source file solution for straightforward parsing needs, useful. Deals with all the nasty edge cases. Such as new line normalization and handling new lines in quoted string literals. Your welcome!

If you CSV file has a header you just read out the column names (and compute column indexes) from the first row. Simple as that.

Note that Dump is a LINQPad method, you might want to remove that if you are not using LINQPad.

void Main()
{
    var file1 = "a,b,c\r\nx,y,z";
    CSV.ParseText(file1).Dump();

    var file2 = "a,\"b\",c\r\nx,\"y,z\"";
    CSV.ParseText(file2).Dump();

    var file3 = "a,\"b\",c\r\nx,\"y\r\nz\"";
    CSV.ParseText(file3).Dump();

    var file4 = "\"\"\"\"";
    CSV.ParseText(file4).Dump();
}

static class CSV
{
    public struct Record
    {
        public readonly string[] Row;

        public string this[int index] => Row[index];

        public Record(string[] row)
        {
            Row = row;
        }
    }

    public static List<Record> ParseText(string text)
    {
        return Parse(new StringReader(text));
    }

    public static List<Record> ParseFile(string fn)
    {
        using (var reader = File.OpenText(fn))
        {
            return Parse(reader);
        }
    }

    public static List<Record> Parse(TextReader reader)
    {
        var data = new List<Record>();

        var col = new StringBuilder();
        var row = new List<string>();
        for (; ; )
        {
            var ln = reader.ReadLine();
            if (ln == null) break;
            if (Tokenize(ln, col, row))
            {
                data.Add(new Record(row.ToArray()));
                row.Clear();
            }
        }

        return data;
    }

    public static bool Tokenize(string s, StringBuilder col, List<string> row)
    {
        int i = 0;

        if (col.Length > 0)
        {
            col.AppendLine(); // continuation

            if (!TokenizeQuote(s, ref i, col, row))
            {
                return false;
            }
        }

        while (i < s.Length)
        {
            var ch = s[i];
            if (ch == ',')
            {
                row.Add(col.ToString().Trim());
                col.Length = 0;
                i++;
            }
            else if (ch == '"')
            {
                i++;
                if (!TokenizeQuote(s, ref i, col, row))
                {
                    return false;
                }
            }
            else
            {
                col.Append(ch);
                i++;
            }
        }

        if (col.Length > 0)
        {
            row.Add(col.ToString().Trim());
            col.Length = 0;
        }

        return true;
    }

    public static bool TokenizeQuote(string s, ref int i, StringBuilder col, List<string> row)
    {
        while (i < s.Length)
        {
            var ch = s[i];
            if (ch == '"')
            {
                // escape sequence
                if (i + 1 < s.Length && s[i + 1] == '"')
                {
                    col.Append('"');
                    i++;
                    i++;
                    continue;
                }
                i++;
                return true;
            }
            else
            {
                col.Append(ch);
                i++;
            }
        }
        return false;
    }
}

If anyone wants a snippet they can plop into their code without having to bind a library or download a package. Here is a version I wrote:

    public static string FormatCSV(List<string> parts)
    {
        string result = "";

        foreach (string s in parts)
        {
            if (result.Length > 0)
            {
                result += ",";

                if (s.Length == 0)
                    continue;
            }

            if (s.Length > 0)
            {
                result += "\"" + s.Replace("\"", "\"\"") + "\"";
            }
            else
            {
                // cannot output double quotes since its considered an escape for a quote
                result += ",";
            }
        }

        return result;
    }

    enum CSVMode
    {
        CLOSED = 0,
        OPENED_RAW = 1,
        OPENED_QUOTE = 2
    }

    public static List<string> ParseCSV(string input)
    {
        List<string> results;

        CSVMode mode;

        char[] letters;

        string content;


        mode = CSVMode.CLOSED;

        content = "";
        results = new List<string>();
        letters = input.ToCharArray();

        for (int i = 0; i < letters.Length; i++)
        {
            char letter = letters[i];
            char nextLetter = '\0';

            if (i < letters.Length - 1)
                nextLetter = letters[i + 1];

            // If its a quote character
            if (letter == '"')
            {
                // If that next letter is a quote
                if (nextLetter == '"' && mode == CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE)
                {
                    // Then this quote is escaped and should be added to the content

                    content += letter;

                    // Skip the escape character
                    i++;
                    continue;
                }
                else
                {
                    // otherwise its not an escaped quote and is an opening or closing one
                    // Character is skipped

                    // If it was open, then close it
                    if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE)
                    {
                        results.Add(content);

                        // reset the content
                        content = "";

                        mode = CSVMode.CLOSED;

                        // If there is a next letter available
                        if (nextLetter != '\0')
                        {
                            // If it is a comma
                            if (nextLetter == ',')
                            {
                                i++;
                                continue;
                            }
                            else
                            {
                                throw new Exception("Expected comma. Found: " + nextLetter);
                            }
                        }
                    }
                    else if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_RAW)
                    {
                        // If it was opened raw, then just add the quote 
                        content += letter;
                    }
                    else if (mode == CSVMode.CLOSED)
                    {
                        // Otherwise open it as a quote 

                        mode = CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE;
                    }
                }
            }
            // If its a comma seperator
            else if (letter == ',')
            {
                // If in quote mode
                if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE)
                {
                    // Just read it
                    content += letter;
                }
                // If raw, then close the content
                else if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_RAW)
                {
                    results.Add(content);

                    content = "";

                    mode = CSVMode.CLOSED;
                }
                // If it was closed, then open it raw
                else if (mode == CSVMode.CLOSED)
                {
                    mode = CSVMode.OPENED_RAW;

                    results.Add(content);

                    content = "";
                }
            }
            else
            {
                // If opened quote, just read it
                if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_QUOTE)
                {
                    content += letter;
                }
                // If opened raw, then read it
                else if (mode == CSVMode.OPENED_RAW)
                {
                    content += letter;
                }
                // It closed, then open raw
                else if (mode == CSVMode.CLOSED)
                {
                    mode = CSVMode.OPENED_RAW;

                    content += letter;
                }
            }
        }

        // If it was still reading when the buffer finished
        if (mode != CSVMode.CLOSED)
        {
            results.Add(content);
        }

        return results;
    }

This parser supports nested commas and quotes in a column:

static class CSVParser
{
    public static string[] ParseLine(string line)
    {
        List<string> cols = new List<string>();
        string value = null;

        for(int i = 0; i < line.Length; i++)
        {
            switch(line[i])
            {
                case ',':
                    cols.Add(value);
                    value = null;
                    if(i == line.Length - 1)
                    {// It ends with comma
                        cols.Add(null);
                    }
                    break;
                case '"':
                    cols.Add(ParseEnclosedColumn(line, ref i));
                    i++;
                    break;
                default:
                    value += line[i];
                    if (i == line.Length - 1)
                    {// Last character
                        cols.Add(value);                           
                    }
                    break;
            }
        }

        return cols.ToArray();
    }//ParseLine

    static string ParseEnclosedColumn(string line, ref int index)
    {// Example: "b"",bb"
        string value = null;
        int numberQuotes = 1;
        int index2 = index;

        for (int i = index + 1; i < line.Length; i++)
        {
            index2 = i;
            switch (line[i])
            {
                case '"':
                    numberQuotes++;
                    if (numberQuotes % 2 == 0)
                    {
                        if (i < line.Length - 1 && line[i + 1] == ',')
                        {
                            index = i;
                            return value;
                        }
                    }
                    else if (i > index + 1 && line[i - 1] == '"')
                    {
                        value += '"';
                    }
                    break;
                default:
                    value += line[i];
                    break;
            }
        }

        index = index2;
        return value;
    }//ParseEnclosedColumn 
}//class CSVParser

For smaller input CSV data LINQ is fully enough. For example for the following CSV file content:

schema_name,description,utype
"IX_HE","High-Energy data","x"
"III_spectro","Spectrosopic data","d"
"VI_misc","Miscellaneous","f"
"vcds1","Catalogs only available in CDS","d"
"J_other","Publications from other journals","b"

when we read the whole content into single string called data, then

using System;
using System.IO;
using System.Linq;

var data = File.ReadAllText(Path2CSV);

// helper split characters
var newline = Environment.NewLine.ToCharArray();
var comma = ",".ToCharArray();
var quote = "\"".ToCharArray();

// split input string data to lines
var lines = data.Split(newline);

// first line is header, take the header fields
foreach (var col in lines.First().Split(comma)) {
    // do something with "col"
}

// we skip the first line, all the rest are real data lines/fields
foreach (var line in lines.Skip(1)) {
    // first we split the data line by comma character
    // next we remove double qoutes from each splitted element using Trim()
    // finally we make an array
    var fields = line.Split(comma)
        .Select(_ => { _ = _.Trim(quote); return _; })
        .ToArray();
    // do something with the "fields" array
}