CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#.net
Bly
Bly

Reputation: 3

C# Using method to output List of strings

I have a program that displays books from a list (Windows Forms). You can view the information about each one when selected and add a book as well. The format in the text file the program is reading from is:

(Type,Book Name,Year,Authors,Page Count)

Example:

Book,Summertime,2014,Pete Bear/Douglas Patrick,411

Since this book has more than one author, the delimiter is '/' and all authors are put into a list called Books, from the class Book. Since Books.Authors is a list rather than a string object, I have to use a method to put in the file output. How can I finish this method to associate it properly?

 private void SaveFile()
        {

            //  Declare file destination and empty
            System.IO.File.WriteAllText("myBooks2.txt", string.Empty);

            // Declare a StreamWriter variable.
            StreamWriter outputFile;

            // Create a file and get a StreamWriter object.
            outputFile = File.AppendText("myBooks2.txt");

            //  For each book item existing, write the outputs
            for (int i = 0; i < Books.Count; i++)
            {
                outputFile.WriteLine(Books[i].Type + "," + Books[i].Title + "," + Books[i].Year + "," + getElementsInList(Books[i].Authors) + "," + Books[i].Pages);
            }

Method for author list

private string getElementsInList(List<string> aList)
        {
            string elements = "";

            for (int i = 0; i < aList.Count; i++)
            {
                
            }
            return elements;
        }

Upvotes: 0

Views: 423

Answers (1)

Cetin Basoz
Cetin Basoz

Reputation: 23837

You could simply use Linq for this. ie:

void Main()
{
    var books = new List<Book> {
        new Book {Type="Book", Name="Summertime",Year=2014,Authors=new List<string> {"Pete Bear", "Douglas Patrick"},Pages=411},
        new Book {Type="Book", Name="My Book",Year=2021,Authors=new List<string> {"You", "Me", "Him"},Pages=100},
        new Book {Type="Book", Name="My Book #2",Year=2021,Authors=new List<string> {"Me"},Pages=100},
    };

    File.WriteAllLines(@"c:\temp\MyCSV.txt",
        books.Select(b => $@"{b.Type},{b.Name},{b.Year},{string.Join("/", b.Authors)},{b.Pages}"));
}


public class Book
{ 
    public string Type { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public int Year { get; set; }
    public int Pages { get; set; }
    public List<string> Authors { get; set; }
}

However, I would strongly suggest you to use a database instead, say postgreSQL or LiteDb, SQLite ...

Upvotes: 1

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