Tag Archives: code

How to create a csv file with C#

C#, Excel, Reporting, Visual Studio, , , , , , , , , ,

This is a simple tutorial on creating csv files using C# that you will be able to edit and expand on to fit your own needs.

First you’ll need to create a new Visual Studio C# console application, to do so follow these steps:

To create and run a console application

  1. Start Visual Studio.

  2. On the menu bar, choose File, New, Project.
  3. Expand Installed, expand Templates, expand Visual C#, and then choose Console Application.
  4. In the Name box, specify a name for your project, and then choose the OK button.
  5. If Program.cs isn’t open in the Code Editor, open the shortcut menu for Program.cs in Solution Explorer, and then choose View Code.

  6. Replace the contents of Program.cs with the following code.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using System.IO;

namespace CreateCsv
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main()
        {
            // Set the path and filename variable "path", filename being MyTest.csv in this example.
            // Change SomeGuy for your username.
            string path = @"C:\Users\SomeGuy\Desktop\MyTest.csv";

            // Set the variable "delimiter" to ", ".
            string delimiter = ", ";

            // This text is added only once to the file.
            if (!File.Exists(path))
            {
                // Create a file to write to.
                string createText = "Column 1 Name" + delimiter + "Column 2 Name" + delimiter + "Column 3 Name" + delimiter + Environment.NewLine;
                File.WriteAllText(path, createText);
            }

            // This text is always added, making the file longer over time
            // if it is not deleted.
            string appendText = "This is text for Column 1" + delimiter + "This is text for Column 2" + delimiter + "This is text for Column 3" + delimiter + Environment.NewLine;
            File.AppendAllText(path, appendText);

            // Open the file to read from.
            string readText = File.ReadAllText(path);
            Console.WriteLine(readText);
        }
    }
}

 

Now when you start the program it should create a csv file called MyTest.csv in the location you specified. The contents of the file should be 3 named columns with text in the first 3 rows.

If you would like to know how to create a console application in Visual Studio that reads a csv file into a list variable see this tutorial link. The tutorial will also show you how to clean strings with regex and will introduce you to functionality that will allow you to search a list for matching strings.

If you would like to know how to create a console application in Visual Studio that won’t open a command window when it runs see this tutorial link.

How to assess T-SQL code quickly

Data, Database Administrator, dba, Development, Reporting, sql, SQL Server, T-SQL, tsql, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

I’m sure you’re an excellent SQL coder writing beautiful efficient queries, but your predecessor . . . well they might have just been lucky to have a job.

Going through someone else’s bad code is usually tiresome, tedious and often very confusing.

I’ve created the T-SQL Assessor excel file to help in this task.

DOWNLOAD (Dropbox link)

The assessor will colour code the sql to highlight the lines of importance. With the Key Word column you can then simply filter to words like INSERT, UPDATE, MERGE and EXEC to see where the data is going or filter the column by the word FROM to see where the data has come from.

To use the T-SQL Assessor file you will first have to format your code using Poor Man’s T-SQL Formatter. This excellent tool can be installed in Visual Studio, SQL Server Management Studio or Notepad++.

http://architectshack.com/PoorMansTSqlFormatter.ashx

You can also use the online option:

http://poorsql.com/

Poor Man’s T-SQL Formatter makes text that contains a SQL command a new line, so you can’t have INSERT and FROM on one line. This is what allows Excel formula’s to highlight the lines with key words as each line can only contain one key word, excluding comments.

Once the code is formatted simply paste it into the first sheet of the file, “SQL”.

That’s it, all the work is then done for you on the second sheet of the file, “SQL Assessed”

T-SQL Assessor is also great at preparing a report from a schema compare script created by Visual Studio. It’s very annoying Microsoft didn’t provide a way of exporting the comparison directly into excel the way Redgate did but this will help. Simply filter the file to only include the keywords.

DOWNLOAD (Dropbox link)