Exporting
data into various file format - i.e. .csv, .tsv is frequently required in our
day to day action. Many of us have been written code segment for this also. My
purpose to write this article is to demonstrate How export data using various encoding into csv format?
Inside the code
In above image you can see that Datagridview is loaded with data. This data contains data in unicode format – Last two row contains data in chainese and russian language. Also we’ve an option for selecting various encoding and delimeters while exporting data. Code for file export is shown as below.
private
void btnExport_Click(object
sender, EventArgs e)
{
DataTable
dt = dg.DataSource as DataTable;
if
(string.IsNullOrEmpty(txtPath.Text.Trim()))
{
ShowMessage("Invalid file path. Please enter valid file
path");
return;
}
StringBuilder
builder = new StringBuilder();
if
(chkHeader.Checked)
{
var
count = 0;
foreach
(DataColumn column in
dt.Columns)
{
count++;
string
content = column.ColumnName + "";
content = content.Replace("\"", "\"\"");
builder.Append(string.Format("{0}{1}{0}",
Convert.ToChar(34), content));
if
(count < dt.Columns.Count)
builder.Append(GetDelimeter(cmbDelimeter.Text.Trim()));
}
builder.Append(Environment.NewLine);
}
foreach
(DataRow row in
dt.Rows)
{
for
(int i = 0; i < row.ItemArray.Length; i++)
{
if
(!Convert.IsDBNull(row[i]))
{
string content = row[i].ToString() + "";
content =
content.Replace("\"", "\"\"");
builder.Append(string.Format("{0}{1}{0}",
Convert.ToChar(34), content));
if
(i < row.ItemArray.Length - 1)
builder.Append(GetDelimeter(cmbDelimeter.Text.Trim()));
}
}
builder.Append(Environment.NewLine);
}
using (var streamWriter = new
StreamWriter(txtPath.Text.Trim(),
chkAppend.Checked, GetEncoding(cmbEncoding.Text.Trim())))
{
streamWriter.Write(builder.ToString());
streamWriter.Flush();
streamWriter.Close();
}
ShowMessage("Data successfully exported");
}
In above code you can see that we are iterating over each row in data
table and appending each cell data into string builder. Delimiter that we
choose while exporting is appended after each cell data through GetDelimeter() function. Code of GetDelimeter() function is shown below:
private
string GetDelimeter(string
delimeter)
{
string
retval = "";
switch
(delimeter.ToLower())
{
case
"coma":
retval = ",";
break;
case
"tab":
retval = "\t";
break;
case
"space":
retval = "\b";
break;
}
return
retval;
}
After
appending all data into string builder, initialize StreamWriter object with argument – Destination file path, data
should appended or not and content Encoding. Encoding is also chosen by us
while exporting. Code for selecting encoding is given below:
private
Encoding GetEncoding(string encoding)
{
Encoding
encod = null;
switch
(encoding.ToLower())
{
case
"unicode":
encod = Encoding.Unicode;
break;
case
"utf8":
encod = Encoding.UTF8;
break;
case
"ansi":
default:
encod = Encoding.Default;
break;
}
return
encod;
}
This way we can export data in csv file with encoding we choose.
