Beautiful Code – Covert IEnumerable to CSV using Linq
Beautiful code – I stole it from http://www.hanselman.com/blog/default.aspx?date=2010-02-04. First, the usage:
string csv = things.Select(t => new { Id = t.Id, Name = t.Name, Date = t.Date, Child = t.Child.Name }).AsCsv();The code that makes it work:
namespace FooFoo
{
public static class LinqToCSV
{
public static string ToCsv<T>(this IEnumerable<T> items)
where T : class
{
var csvBuilder = new StringBuilder();
var properties = typeof(T).GetProperties();
foreach (T item in items)
{
string line = string.Join(",",properties.Select(p => p.GetValue(item, null).ToCsvValue()).ToArray());
csvBuilder.AppendLine(line);
}
return csvBuilder.ToString();
}
private static string ToCsvValue<T>(this T item)
{
if(item == null) return "\"\"";
if (item is string)
{
return string.Format("\"{0}\"", item.ToString().Replace("\"", "\\\""));
}
double dummy;
if (double.TryParse(item.ToString(), out dummy))
{
return string.Format("{0}", item);
}
return string.Format("\"{0}\"", item);
}
}
}
