Read CSV that contained newline

Question

I want to read CSV to array, but the csv cointaned newline inside the cell.

CSV ( csvdata )

Title,Description,Tags,Category,Private,Images
MyGreatTitle1,"After this line is blankline
Text after blankline",techno,Tech,FALSE,C:\blogpostimg\img1.jpg
MyGreatTitle2,"After this line is blankline
Text after blankline",techno,Tech,FALSE,C:\blogpostimg\img2.jpg
MyGreatTitle3,"After this line is blankline
Text after blankline",techno,Tech,FALSE,C:\blogpostimg\img3.jpg
MyGreatTitle4,"After this line is blankline
Text after blankline",techno,Tech,FALSE,C:\blogpostimg\img4.jpg
MyGreatTitle5,"After this line is blankline
Text after blankline",techno,Tech,FALSE,C:\blogpostimg\img5.jpg
MyGreatTitle6,"After this line is blankline
Text after blankline",techno,Tech,FALSE,C:\blogpostimg\img6.jpg

I use this code :

string dir = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + @"blogpost";
string[] allLines = File.ReadAllLines(dir + "csvdatabase.csv");

How to read csv line by line but not inside cell?

@EstefanyVelez nope, my question is inside cell contained newline — radiaku
Use a CSV library rather than roll your own. See this discussion and there's a link to a suitable lib. stackoverflow.com/questions/1179157/… — cirrus

Sebastian Negraszus Sebastian Negraszus · Accepted Answer · 2013-01-07T14:52:50

As cirrus said, you should probably use a dedicated CSV library, but if you want to do it yourself (or understand how to do it), here is a quickly written CSV parser to give you an idea. It does not handle the full CSV standard, only your specific requirements!

public class CsvParser
{
    private readonly List<List<string>> entries = new List<List<string>>();
    private string currentEntry = "";
    private bool insideQuotation;

    /// <summary>
    ///   Returns all scanned entries.
    ///   Outer IEnumerable = rows,
    ///   inner IEnumerable = columns of the corresponding row.
    /// </summary>
    public IEnumerable<IEnumerable<string>> Entries
    {
        get { return entries; }
    }

    public void ScanNextLine(string line)
    {
        // At the beginning of the line
        if (!insideQuotation)
        {
            entries.Add(new List<string>());
        }

        // The characters of the line
        foreach (char c in line)
        {
            if (insideQuotation)
            {
                if (c == '"')
                {
                    insideQuotation = false;
                }
                else
                {
                    currentEntry += c;
                }
            }
            else if (c == ',')
            {
                entries[entries.Count - 1].Add(currentEntry);
                currentEntry = "";
            }
            else if (c == '"')
            {
                insideQuotation = true;
            }
            else
            {
                currentEntry += c;
            }
        }

        // At the end of the line
        if (!insideQuotation)
        {
            entries[entries.Count - 1].Add(currentEntry);
            currentEntry = "";
        }
        else
        {
            currentEntry += "\n";
        }
    }
}

internal class Program
{
    private static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        string dir = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.BaseDirectory + @"blogpost";
        string[] allLines = File.ReadAllLines(dir + "csvdatabase.csv");

        CsvParser parser = new CsvParser();
        foreach (string line in allLines )
        {
            parser.ScanNextLine(line);
        }
    }
}

Read CSV that contained newline

1 Answers