Question

How can I use OLEDB to parse and import a CSV file that each cell is encased in double quotes because some rows contain commas in them?? I am unable to change the format as it is coming from a vendor.

I am trying the following and it is failing with an IO error:

public DataTable ConvertToDataTable(string fileToImport, string fileDestination)
{
    string fullImportPath = fileDestination + @"\" + fileToImport;
    OleDbDataAdapter dAdapter = null;
    DataTable dTable = null;

    try
    {
        if (!File.Exists(fullImportPath))
            return null;

        string full = Path.GetFullPath(fullImportPath);
        string file = Path.GetFileName(full);
        string dir = Path.GetDirectoryName(full);


        //create the "database" connection string
        string connString = "Provider=Microsoft.Jet.OLEDB.4.0;"
          + "Data Source=\"" + dir + "\\\";"
          + "Extended Properties=\"text;HDR=No;FMT=Delimited\"";

        //create the database query
        string query = "SELECT * FROM " + file;

        //create a DataTable to hold the query results
        dTable = new DataTable();

        //create an OleDbDataAdapter to execute the query
        dAdapter = new OleDbDataAdapter(query, connString);


        //fill the DataTable
        dAdapter.Fill(dTable);
    }
    catch (Exception ex)
    {
        throw new Exception(CLASS_NAME + ".ConvertToDataTable: Caught Exception: " + ex);
    }
    finally
    {
        if (dAdapter != null)
            dAdapter.Dispose();
    }

    return dTable;
}

When I use a normal CSV it works fine. Do I need to change something in the connString??

Answer 1

Just incase anyone has a similar issue, i wanted to post the code i used. i did end up using Textparser to get the file and parse ot the columns, but i am using recrusion to get the rest done and substrings.

 /// <summary>
        /// Parses each string passed as a "row".
        /// This routine accounts for both double quotes
        /// as well as commas currently, but can be added to
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="row"> string or row to be parsed</param>
        /// <returns></returns>
        private List<String> ParseRowToList(String row)
        {
            List<String> returnValue = new List<String>();

            if (row[0] == '\"')
            {// Quoted String
                if (row.IndexOf("\",") > -1)
                {// There are more columns
                    returnValue = ParseRowToList(row.Substring(row.IndexOf("\",") + 2));
                    returnValue.Insert(0, row.Substring(1, row.IndexOf("\",") - 1));
                }
                else
                {// This is the last column
                    returnValue.Add(row.Substring(1, row.Length - 2));
                }
            }
            else
            {// Unquoted String
                if (row.IndexOf(",") > -1)
                {// There are more columns
                    returnValue = ParseRowToList(row.Substring(row.IndexOf(",") + 1));
                    returnValue.Insert(0, row.Substring(0, row.IndexOf(",")));
                }
                else
                {// This is the last column
                    returnValue.Add(row.Substring(0, row.Length));
                }
            }

            return returnValue;

        }

Then the code for Textparser is:

 // string pathFile = @"C:\TestFTP\TestCatalog.txt";
            string pathFile = @"C:\TestFTP\SomeFile.csv";

            List<String> stringList = new List<String>();
            TextFieldParser fieldParser = null;
            DataTable dtable = new DataTable();

            /* Set up TextFieldParser
                *  use the correct delimiter provided
                *  and path */
            fieldParser = new TextFieldParser(pathFile);
            /* Set that there are quotes in the file for fields and or column names */
            fieldParser.HasFieldsEnclosedInQuotes = true;

            /* delimiter by default to be used first */
            fieldParser.SetDelimiters(new string[] { "," });

            // Build Full table to be imported
            dtable = BuildDataTable(fieldParser, dtable);