Working with CSV
Explore how to read and write CSV files in C# by parsing data into objects and formatting objects into CSV format. Understand file handling with async methods and recognize the challenges in manual parsing while learning about robust libraries like CsvHelper for complex CSV scenarios.
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CSV (Comma-Separated Values) is a universally accepted text format for storing and exchanging tabular data. Spreadsheets, databases, and reporting tools heavily rely on CSV files for data exports.
The structure of a CSV file is highly predictable. The file consists of multiple lines. The first line is typically a header row defining the column names. Every subsequent line represents a single data record. Within each line, individual data fields are separated by a comma.
Id,Name,Price1,Laptop,999.992,Wireless Mouse,25.503,Mechanical Keyboard,85.00
How to read a CSV file
To process a CSV file, we must read the text from the disk and parse it into strongly typed C# objects. Instead of reading the entire file as one massive string using File.ReadAllTextAsync, we use File.ReadAllLinesAsync(). This ...