Question

I’m reading a local csv file which has data and I will eventually use to load into a database. My question is simple in nature but I can’t seem to grasp the concept. Below is my code. Pretty simple stuff.

      static void loadTables() {
        int size = new int();
        string[] empid = new string[0];
       
        //string[] empid = new string();
        List<string[]> EmployeeName = new List<string[]>();
        List<string[]> EmployeeId = new List<string[]>();
        List<string[]> Group = new List<string[]>();
        List<string[]> Org = new List<string[]>();
        List<string[]> Fund = new List<string[]>();
        try {
            using (StreamReader readFile = new StreamReader("C:\\temp\\groupFundOrgReport.csv")) 
            {
             string line;
              string[] row;
              size = 0;
              while ((line = readFile.ReadLine()) != null)
              {
                  row = line.Split(',');
                  /*resize the array up by 1*/
                  Array.Resize(ref empid,empid.Length+1);
                  /*I'm using size as a counter to add to the slot on the array.*/
                  empid[size] = row[0].Remove(0,1);
                  // here I receive error (the best overload match of system generic list?...etc) 
                  EmployeeName.Add(row[0]);
                  size++;
                  
              }

             }
           }
    
        catch(Exception e){

            Console.WriteLine(e);
        
        }
    
    
    
    
    }

I have a list of string but any attempts to add a string to it gets me an error. In other words if I try to do this EmployeeName.Add(row[0].ToString); I get an error. However if I comment the line out I can use an old fashion array. I really like to use a list but I can’t seem to be able to pass the value that I want. Can someone please point me in the right direction?

Answer 1

I guess from your code that the employee name is the first field of the CSV file.

You have declared EmployeeName as a List of arrays of strings List<string[]>, not as a list of strings List<string>.

Row[0] is the first string in an array, so you are trying to add a string to a list that is expecting you to add an array of strings.

You should just declare EmployeeName as a List<string>, using a line like:

List<string> EmployeeName = new List<string>();

or

var EmployeeName = new List<string>();