CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#performancecsv
BenG
BenG

Reputation: 53

Reading data from a CSV file

I'm looking for the fastest way to read data from a CSV file. I tried doing this two different ways.

Method #1: Reading all of the lines from the CSV file into an array an then iterating the array:

String[] csv = File.ReadAllLines(@"E:\be.csv");

for (int i = 0; i < csv.Length; i++)
{
    tx.Text = csv[i];
    tx.Refresh();
}

Method #2*: Using StreamReader:

StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(new FileStream(@"E:\be.csv");

while (!sr.EndOfStream)
{
    string seg = sr.ReadLine();
    tx.Text = sr.ReadLine();
    tx.Refresh();
}

Using StreamReader seems to be a lot faster. Is there an even faster method to import data from a CSV file?

Upvotes: 2

Views: 934

Answers (3)

Sam Axe
Sam Axe

Reputation: 33738

.NET has a built in CSV parser called TextFieldParser.

Upvotes: 1

Nicholas Carey
Nicholas Carey

Reputation: 74375

Sebastien Loren's Fast CSV Reader on CodeProject is probably the way to go.

It implements IDataReader and acts mostly like a StreamReader.

Highly recommended.

Upvotes: 3

TyCobb
TyCobb

Reputation: 9089

I must suggest CsvHelper which can be found in NuGet. Having used it for the first time yesterday, it will now be my go to solution.

http://www.nuget.org/packages/CsvHelper/

For your actual question of what's faster, I would probably say just doing File.ReadAllLines(...), but it would be best for you to actually try and set up a test to do both options several hundred times and see which one took the longest.

Also, do not forget to dispose your StreamReader. Go ahead and wrap that in a using statement so everything gets closed/disposed probably.

Upvotes: 3

Related Questions