willj / csvextensions

Extension methods for exporting CSV files from IEnumerable<T>, and a CSVFileResult for ASP.NET

CSVExtensions

Extension methods for exporting CSV files from IEnumerable<T>, and a CSVFileResult for ASP.NET

Basic Usage

With any IEnumerable<T> call ToCSV([withHeader = true]) to get a properly formatted (RFC 4180 compliant) and escaped IEnumerable<string>, with each item being a CSV row.

List<Product> products = repository.GetProductList();

var csv = products.ToCSV();

It can be used in the same way against an IEnumerable<dynamic>

List<dynamic> products = repository.GetProductList();

var csv = products.ToCSV();

By default ToCSV will add property names as the first row, disable this by passing false to the withHeader argument. products.toCSV(false);

ASP.NET

With ASP.NET you can pass your IEnumerable<T> to a new CSVFileResult and return this, you don't need to call ToCSV() yourself.

public ActionResult DownloadCsv()
{
    var result = repository.GetSomeData();

    return new CsvFileResult<dynamic>(result, "fileName.csv");
}

Additional methods

ToCsvRow(), ToCSVRow(PropertyInfo[] properties = null)

Produces a valid, escaped CSV row from an object. You can pass in an array of PropertyInfo objects if you have them to prevent the method using reflection to get them each time you call it.

string.EscapeForCsv()

An extension method that escapes, then returns the string for use as a CSV value (based on RFC 4180).