Question

I have a CSV file that I want to read into a List. Here’s an example file:

Plant,Material,"Density, Lb/ft3",Storage Location
FRED,10000477,64.3008,3300
FRED,10000479,62.612,3275
FRED,10000517,90,3550
FRED,10000517,72,3550
FRED,10000532,90,3550
FRED,10000532,72,3550
FRED,10000550,97,3050

I know I can manually read in the CSV file and build the list using a normal StreamReader, but I was wondering if there was a better way, perhaps using LINQ?

Answer 1

You can use a simple code like this, which ignores the header and doesn’t work with quotes, but may be sufficient for your needs.

from line in File.ReadAllLines(fileName).Skip(1)
let columns = line.Split(',')
select new
{
  Plant = columns[0],
  Material = int.Parse(columns[1]),
  Density = float.Parse(columns[2]),
  StorageLocation = int.Parse(columns[3])
}

Or you can use a library, like others suggested.