Export a C# DataSet to a text file

Question

There are a lot of examples online of how to fill a DataSet from a text file but I want to do the reverse. The only thing I've been able to find is this but it seems... incomplete?

I want it to be in a readable format, not just comma delimited, so non-equal spacing between columns on each row if that makes sense. Here is an example of what I mean:

Column1          Column2          Column3
Some info        Some more info   Even more info
Some stuff here  Some more stuff  Even more stuff
Bits             and              bobs

Note: I only have one DataTable within my DataSet so no need to worry about multiple DataTables.

EDIT: When I said "readable" I meant human-readable.

Thanks in advance.

Solution 1

This should space out fixed length font text nicely, but it does mean it will process the full DataTable twice (pass 1: find longest text per column, pass 2: output text):

    static void Write(DataTable dt, string outputFilePath)
    {
        int[] maxLengths = new int[dt.Columns.Count];

        for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++)
        {
            maxLengths[i] = dt.Columns[i].ColumnName.Length;

            foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
            {
                if (!row.IsNull(i))
                {
                    int length = row[i].ToString().Length;

                    if (length > maxLengths[i])
                    {
                        maxLengths[i] = length;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        using (StreamWriter sw = new StreamWriter(outputFilePath, false))
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++)
            {
                sw.Write(dt.Columns[i].ColumnName.PadRight(maxLengths[i] + 2));
            }

            sw.WriteLine();

            foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count; i++)
                {
                    if (!row.IsNull(i))
                    {
                        sw.Write(row[i].ToString().PadRight(maxLengths[i] + 2));
                    }
                    else
                    {
                        sw.Write(new string(' ', maxLengths[i] + 2));
                    }
                }

                sw.WriteLine();
            }

            sw.Close();
        }
    }

Solution 2

it is better that you export your data to xml format.

dataset have a method for this work :

DataSet ds = new DataSet(); 
ds.WriteXml(fileName);

you can read a xml and fill dataset data like below :

DataSet ds = new DataSet(); 
ds.ReadXml(fileName);

Solution 3

what I would do is:

foreach (DataRow row in myDataSet.Tables[0].Rows)
{
    foreach (object item in row.ItemArray)
    {
        myStreamWriter.Write((string)item + "\t");
    }
    myStreamWriter.WriteLine();
}

Maybe add column names before the loops if you want the headers. That I think, although being rather simple, should do the trick.

Solution 4

what about the below?

 public static void Write(DataTable dt, string filePath)
        {
            int i = 0;
            StreamWriter sw = null;
                sw = new StreamWriter(filePath, false);
                for (i = 0; i < dt.Columns.Count - 1; i++)
                {
                    sw.Write(dt.Columns[i].ColumnName + " ");
                }
                sw.Write(dt.Columns[i].ColumnName);
                sw.WriteLine();
                foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
                {
                    object[] array = row.ItemArray;
                    for (i = 0; i < array.Length - 1; i++)
                    {
                        sw.Write(array[i] + " ");
                    }
                    sw.Write(array[i].ToString());
                    sw.WriteLine();
                }
                sw.Close();
        }

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