Convert a CSV to XML using C#

I wrote a simple class that will help you convert a CSV file to XML. I can hear you asking “that’s nice JP, but why would I want to convert my simple CSV to that messy text format from the early 2000’s?” You would do this because you want to use LINQ with CSV files… that’s why.

Here is the crux of the algorithm:

public void Convert() {
	var tempLines = File.ReadAllLines(this.CsvFile);
	string[] lines = null;
	_columnNames = null;
	
	if (this.HasColumnNames) {
		_columnNames = Csv.RecordSplit(tempLines[0], this.RecordDelimiter, this.TextQualifier);
	
		lines = new string[tempLines.Length - 1];
		Array.Copy(tempLines, 1, lines, 0, lines.Length);
	} else {
		var columnCount = Csv.RecordSplit(tempLines[0], this.RecordDelimiter, this.TextQualifier).Length;
		_columnNames = new string[columnCount];
		for (int x = 0; x < _columnNames.Length; ++x)
			_columnNames[x] = "Column" + (x+1);
	
		lines = tempLines;
	}
	
	this.XmlData = new XElement("Records",
		from line in lines
		let fields = Csv.RecordSplit(line, this.RecordDelimiter, this.TextQualifier)
		select new XElement("Record",
			from fieldData in fields
			let i = fields.ToList().FindIndex(f => f == fieldData)
			select new XElement(_columnNames[i], fieldData)
		)
	);
}

You can look at the full code in my C# CommonLib library. As you can see, the code is really straightforward.

Let’s assume that your CSV file looks like this:

'Product','Price','DateStocked'
'Pepsi','4.50','2010-05-04'
'Coke','3.00','2010-09-22'
'Cheetos','7.25','2009-01-13'


You can then run Csv2Xml like this:

var csv = new CsvToXml(csvFile);
csv.RecordDelimiter = ','; 
csv.TextQualifier = '\'';
csv.HasColumnNames = false;
csv.Convert();

var actualXml = csv.XmlString;

The output XML will look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Records>
	<Record>
		<Column1>Pepsi</Column1>
		<Column2>4.50</Column2>
		<Column3>2010-05-04</Column3>
	</Record>
	<Record>
		<Column1>Coke</Column1>
		<Column2>3.00</Column2>
		<Column3>2010-09-22</Column3>
	</Record>
	<Record>
		<Column1>Cheetos</Column1>
		<Column2>7.25</Column2>
		<Column3>2009-01-13</Column3>
	</Record>
</Records>

If you set “HasColumnNames” to “True”, your XML output will look like this:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Records>
	<Record>
		<Product>Pepsi</Product>
		<Price>4.50</Price>
		<DateStocked>2010-05-04</DateStocked>
	</Record>
	<Record>
		<Product>Coke</Product>
		<Price>3.00</Price>
		<DateStocked>2010-09-22</DateStocked>
	</Record>
	<Record>
		<Product>Cheetos</Product>
		<Price>7.25</Price>
		<DateStocked>2009-01-13</DateStocked>
	</Record>
</Records>

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Pretty nifty huh? In the next post, I’ll explain how you can use this with LINQ. In the mean time follow me on Twitter (@jprichardson) or read my blog on entrepreneurship: Techneur.

-JP