Fetch data from a CSV file using console app written in C#

fetchfromcsv.md

First things first, you need to get to know your CSV file, how many columns does it have and so on...

For each column you may need a list for contain the data or not, let's take a two-column CSV file

Name	Comment

The data in the CSV must have this structure

Name;Comment

The data below the columns' name will correspond to every header present in the file.

Let's see an example of a pretty CSV file

Name;Comment
John Doe;Example

The first line correspond to the headers, next lines contains data itself.

Now, let's dive into the C# app.

For every header, you need a list to collect all the data and you need to specify
the CSV's path

List<string> nameColumn = new List<string>();
List<string> commentColumn = new List<string>();
string pathCSV = @"C:\example\paht\file.csv";

Next, we need to create and use a StreamReader object to read data from the CSV

using (var reader = new StreamReader(pathCSV))
{
    // Add logic here
    reader.Close();
}

As a little example, we can do something like this:

List<string> usernames = new List<string>();
List<string> comments = new List<string>();
var pathCSV = @"";

using (var reader = new StreamReader(pathCSV))
{
    while (!reader.EndOfStream)
    {
        // Example made with two-column CSV
        string line = reader.ReadLine()!;
        var values = line.Split(';');
        // Add more lists and columns as you need
        usernames.Add(values[0]);
        comments.Add(values[1]);
    }
    reader.Close();
}

print(usernames);
Console.WriteLine("----------------------");
print(comments);

Console.ReadLine();

void print(List<string> list)
{
    foreach (var item in list)
    {
        Console.WriteLine(item);
    }
}