Question

Im using C# and my code is reading and moving some files. The problem is, that there are not so many files to read and move them to other folders. But I would like to test my code with 500,1000 or more files at once.

I could create every single file by myself -> not so smart. I could generate these files and write my own code for this -> could work, but is there not an easier way? Maybe there are already some tools for developers to create testfiles? Or is there another solution in c#/.net?

PS: Ah forgot to say – Im reading normal ascii file. Later I would like to create “csv-like” files (strings splittet by “;”) if it would be possible.

Answer 1

This code will create an arbitrary number of files, each with an arbitrary number of lines, each containing an arbitrary number of comma-separated random integer values.

I hope it gets you started on creating some test data for your application.

    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        int numFiles = 30;

        for (int fileIndex = 0; fileIndex < numFiles; fileIndex++)
        {
            string randomFileName = Path.Combine(@"c:\temp", Path.GetRandomFileName() + ".csv");

            GenerateTestFile(randomFileName, 20, 10);
        }
    }

    static void GenerateTestFile(string fileName, int numLines, int numValues)
    {
        int[] values = new int[numValues];

        Random random = new Random(DateTime.Now.Millisecond);
        FileInfo f = new FileInfo(fileName);

        using (TextWriter fs = f.CreateText())
        {
            for (int lineIndex = 0; lineIndex < numLines; lineIndex++)
            {
                for (int valIndex = 0; valIndex < values.Length; valIndex++)
                {
                    values[valIndex] = random.Next(100);
                }

                fs.WriteLine(string.Join(",", values));
            }
        }
    }