Writing data into CSV file in C#

UPDATE

Back in my naïve days, I suggested doing this manually (it was a simple solution to a simple question), however due to this becoming more and more popular, I'd recommend using the library CsvHelper that does all the safety checks, etc.

CSV is way more complicated than what the question/answer suggests.

Original Answer

As you already have a loop, consider doing it like this:

//before your loop
    var csv = new StringBuilder();

//in your loop
    var first = reader[0].ToString();
    var second = image.ToString();
    //Suggestion made by KyleMit
    var newLine = string.Format("{0},{1}", first, second);
    csv.AppendLine(newLine);  

//after your loop
    File.WriteAllText(filePath, csv.ToString());

Or something to this effect. My reasoning is: you won't be need to write to the file for every item, you will only be opening the stream once and then writing to it.

You can replace

File.WriteAllText(filePath, csv.ToString());

with

File.AppendAllText(filePath, csv.ToString());

if you want to keep previous versions of csv in the same file

C# 6

If you are using c# 6.0 then you can do the following

var newLine = $"{first},{second}"

EDIT

Here is a link to a question that explains what Environment.NewLine does.


I would highly recommend you to go the more tedious route. Especially if your file size is large.

using(var w = new StreamWriter(path))
{
    for( /* your loop */)
    {
        var first = yourFnToGetFirst();
        var second = yourFnToGetSecond();
        var line = string.Format("{0},{1}", first, second);
        w.WriteLine(line);
        w.Flush();
    }
}

File.AppendAllText() opens a new file, writes the content and then closes the file. Opening files is a much resource-heavy operation, than writing data into open stream. Opening\closing a file inside a loop will cause performance drop.

The approach suggested by Johan solves that problem by storing all the output in memory and then writing it once. However (in case of big files) you program will consume a large amount of RAM and even crash with OutOfMemoryException

Another advantage of my solution is that you can implement pausing\resuming by saving current position in input data.

upd. Placed using in the right place


Writing csv files by hand can be difficult because your data might contain commas and newlines. I suggest you use an existing library instead.

This question mentions a few options.

Are there any CSV readers/writer libraries in C#?

Tags:

C#

Csv

File