CSV to List

[shapper]

Hello,

How can I create a List of String from a CSV String?

For example, from:

"New York, London ,Lisbon ,Car,C# "

I would get a list with the following items:
"New York", "London", "Lisbon", "Car", "C#"

So I would take all words but ignore the spaces before and after a
comma but not the ones between words.

Should I make this with Regex?

Thanks,
Miguel

[Peter Duniho]

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:29:48 -0700, shapper <md*****@gmail.comwrote:

How can I create a List of String from a CSV String?

[...]
Should I make this with Regex?

I suppose you could. But IMHO, the Split() and Trim() methods of String
provide everything you need:

public List<stringCSVToList(string strInput)
{
string[] rgstrRecord = strInput.Split(new char[] { ',' });
List<stringlstrRet = new List<string>(rgstrRecord.Length);

foreach (string strColumn in rgstrRecord)
{
lstrRet.Add(strColumn.Trim());
}

return lstrRet;
}

No doubt there's a LINQ way to do all that that looks much nicer, but I've
been slacking and still can't write it off the top of my head. I'll learn
LINQ one day. :)

Pete

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?=]

shapper wrote:

How can I create a List of String from a CSV String?

For example, from:

"New York, London ,Lisbon ,Car,C# "

I would get a list with the following items:
"New York", "London", "Lisbon", "Car", "C#"

So I would take all words but ignore the spaces before and after a
comma but not the ones between words.

Fundamentally:
Split
Trim
assign

C# 2.0:

public static List<stringSpecialSplit20(string s)
{
List<stringres = new List<string>();
foreach(string part in s.Split(','))
{
res.Add(part.Trim());
}
return res;
}

C# 3.5:

public static List<stringSpecialSplit30(string s)
{
return new List<string>(from part in s.Split(',') select
part.Trim());
}

Arne

[Jay Riggs]

On Jun 26, 5:29*pm, shapper <[e-mail]:

Hello,

How can I create a List of String from a CSV String?

For example, from:

"New York, London * ,Lisbon * *,Car,C# * *"

I would get a list with the following items:
"New York", "London", "Lisbon", "Car", "C#"

So I would take all words but ignore the spaces before and after a
comma but not the ones between words.

Should I make this with Regex?

Thanks,
Miguel

Miguel,
There are a number of CSV readers freely available. Here's my
favorite:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/databa...ricParser.aspx

I believe this one can read directly into a List<stringand includes:
http://www.codeproject.com/KB/database/filehelpers.aspx

-Jay

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

On Jun 27, 1:44*am, "Peter Duniho" <[e-mail]>
wrote:

No doubt there's a LINQ way to do all that that looks much nicer, but I've *
been slacking and still can't write it off the top of my head. *I'll learn *
LINQ one day. *:)

strInput.Split(',').Select(x =x.Trim()).ToList()

:)

Jon

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

On Jun 27, 1:52*am, Arne Vajhøj <[e-mail]:

<snip>

Just wearing my version number pedantry hat:

C# 3.5:

It's C# 3, not 3.5. I've got an article about the version numbers at
http://csharpindepth.com/Articles/Ch.../Versions.aspx

(I know I've been doing a lot of this recently. I can understand if
it's slightly annoying, but I think it's for the best in the long run.
If other groupies would rather I stopped, please let me know.)

* * * * *public static List<stringSpecialSplit30(string s)
* * * * *{
* * * * * * *return new List<string>(from part in s.Split(',') select
part.Trim());
* * * * *}

I've just posted my version as a reply to Pete's post - I tend not to
bother with a query expression if I'm just using one operator (just
select, or a where followed by a no-op select). And ToList is
goodness :)

Jon

[Peter Duniho]

On Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:54:58 -0700, Jon Skeet [C# MVP] <sk***@pobox.com>
wrote:

Just wearing my version number pedantry hat:

>C# 3.5:

It's C# 3, not 3.5. I've got an article about the version numbers at
http://csharpindepth.com/Articles/Ch.../Versions.aspx

(I know I've been doing a lot of this recently. I can understand if
it's slightly annoying, but I think it's for the best in the long run.
If other groupies would rather I stopped, please let me know.)

For what it's worth, I find the version corrections useful, even if it's
unlikely I'm ever going to get everything memorized. If anything, as more
incremental versions come out, and as there become more combinations of
CLR, C#, and .NET versions available, I think it's more and more important
to be precise about which features require which versions.

Heck, just the other day I had to unconfuse myself about which .NET
versions include the various Action delegates, since it turns out two
showed up in 3.0 and the other three showed up in 3.5! I find it helpful
to have other folks piping up to keep me honest.

That said, I realize opinions may vary. That's just my two cents. :)

Pete

[Marc Gravell]

about which .NET

versions include the various Action delegates, since it turns out two
showed up in 3.0 and the other three showed up in 3.5!

2.0, surely? I could well be wrong, but Action<Tis used in
List<T>.ForEach since 2.0?

Marc

[Marc Gravell]

Just wearing my version number pedantry hat:

Now if only we could fix the number of books touting C# 2008 ;-p

Marc

[Peter Duniho]

On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:27:05 -0700, Marc Gravell <ma**********@gmail.com>
wrote:

>about which .NET
versions include the various Action delegates, since it turns out two
showed up in 3.0 and the other three showed up in 3.5!

2.0, surely? I could well be wrong, but Action<Tis used in
List<T>.ForEach since 2.0?

Yes, sorry. Typo.

However, I was mistaken. Only Action<Twas in 2.0. The rest all appear
to not have shown up until 3.5 (I mistakenly assumed that the
parameterless Action type had been around as long as Action<T>).

Pete

[shapper]

On Jun 27, 8:57*am, "Peter Duniho" <[e-mail]>
wrote:

On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 00:27:05 -0700, Marc Gravell <[e-mail]>*
wrote:

about which .NET
versions include the various Action delegates, since it turns out two
showed up in 3.0 and the other three showed up in 3.5!

2.0, surely? I could well be wrong, but Action<Tis used in
List<T>.ForEach since 2.0?

Yes, sorry. *Typo.

However, I was mistaken. *Only Action<Twas in 2.0. *The rest all appear *
to not have shown up until 3.5 (I mistakenly assumed that the *
parameterless Action type had been around as long as Action<T>).

Pete

Thank you all!

For now I think I will use the Linq version.
It is short and it solves my particular problem.

But the other suggestions might be handy in the future.

Thank You,
Miguel

[Peter Duniho]

On Fri, 27 Jun 2008 04:24:20 -0700, shapper <md*****@gmail.comwrote:

For now I think I will use the Linq version.
It is short and it solves my particular problem.

But the other suggestions might be handy in the future.

Except for possibly Jay's, probably not. Jon's LINQ suggestion is
essentially identical to the code examples posted to this thread. It's
just a lot more concise. :)

Pete