Question

So here’s what I’m working with. I’m trying to take an XML file, pull the info from the attributes, append them together, and write it to a CSV file. I’m still relatively new to programming, and the other programmer is out of the office today, so I could really use some assistance.

My first question, regards the StringBuilder. Do I need to have an AppendLine at the end of my StringBuilder, so that each string output from the foreach loop is on a new line? And would I need to do that inside the foreach loop?

My second question regards actually writing my string to the CSV file. Would it look something like?

swOutputFile.WriteLine(strAppendedJobData)

And I think this would also go inside the foreach loop, but I’m not too sure.

Thanks for the help, I hope I’ve worded my question in a somewhat easy to understand manner.

//Create a stream writer to write the data from returned XML job ticket to a new CSV
        StreamWriter swOutputFile;
        string strComma = ",";
        swOutputFile = new StreamWriter(new FileStream("C:\\Dev\\AppendedJobData.csv", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write, FileShare.Read));

        //Get nodes from returned XML ticket
        XmlNodeList xmlJobs = xdResults.SelectNodes("/Updates/Jobs/Job");
        //Pull out data from XML attributes
        foreach (XmlElement xeJobUpdate in xmlJobs)
        {
            //Break down the job data
            string strProjectID = xeJobUpdate.GetAttribute("SharpOwlProjectID");
            string strJobNumber = xeJobUpdate.GetAttribute("JobNumber");
            string strClientCode = xeJobUpdate.GetAttribute("SharpOwlClientCode");
            string strClient = xeJobUpdate.GetAttribute("Client");
            string strVCAOffice = xeJobUpdate.GetAttribute("VCAOffice");
            string strLoadStatus = xeJobUpdate.GetAttribute("LoadStatus");

            //Build the string to be added to the new CSV file

            StringBuilder sbConcatJob = new StringBuilder();
            sbConcatJob.Append(strProjectID).Append(strComma).Append(strJobNumber)
                .Append(strComma).Append(strClientCode).Append(strComma).Append(strClient).Append(strComma)
                .Append(strVCAOffice).Append(strComma).Append(strLoadStatus).Append(strComma);
            string strAppendedJobData = sbConcatJob.ToString();

Answer 1

You really have two options here:

If you call sbConcatJob.AppendLine() inside the foreach loop you can build the contents of the file in one string builder then call swOutputFile.Write(sbConcatJob.ToString()) outside of the foreach loop to write the file.

If you keep your code as it is now you can add sw.OutputFile.WriteLine(sbConcatJob.ToString()) inside the foreach loop and write the file one line at a time.