Saving a 2D array to csv with separate cells in C#

Question

I'm having trouble saving a 2D array string[,] to a csv file in C#. I want each element to be in its own cell when I open the .csv file in Excel but with this code everything ends up in one column. What should I change in order to have every element in its own cell?

public static void Main(string[] args) { string[,] array = new string[2, 5]; array[0, 0] = "ID"; array[0, 1] = "Turns"; array[0, 2] = "Forward Results"; array[0, 3] = "Backward Results"; array[0, 4] = "Trainings"; array[1, 0] = "SEL-HYS-001"; array[1, 1] = "5"; array[1, 2] = "100%"; array[1, 3] = "100%"; array[1, 4] = "1"; StreamWriter sw = File.CreateText("outputText.csv"); for (int i = 0; i < 2; i++) { for (int j = 0; j < 5; j++) { sw.Write(array[i, j] + ";"); } sw.Write("\n"); } sw.Flush(); sw.Close(); Console.WriteLine("Success!"); }

You are separating values with a semi-colon, but the csv format uses commas as delimiter, that's why it's not working as you expect it. — nick
– nick, Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 22:22
@nick Ok I am glad it was that easy of a fix, thank you so much! — GiornoSassaki
– GiornoSassaki, Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 22:24
The field separator in Excel for loading CSV files depends on the language. A german Excel has a semicolon ";" as a field separator. — G Wimpassinger
– G Wimpassinger, Commented Nov 29, 2020 at 22:27

Dmitrii Bychenko · Accepted Answer · 2020-11-29 22:40:31Z

Let's split the initial problem in two; first, convert string[,] data into csv:

using System.IO; using System.Linq; ... private static IEnumerable<string> ToCsv(string[,] data, char delimiter = ';') { for (int r = 0; r < data.GetLength(0); ++r) { StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder(); for (int c = 0; c < data.GetLength(1); ++c) { string v = data[r, c] ?? ""; // Do we have to escape? E.g. abc;d"ef -> "abc;d""ef" if (v.Any(c => c < ' ' || c == '"' || c == delimiter)) v = "\"" + v.Replace("\"", "\"\"") + "\""; if (sb.Length > 0) sb.Append(delimiter); sb.Append(v); } yield return sb.ToString(); } }

Then write the data into a file:

string[,] array = ... File.WriteAllLines("outputText.csv", ToCsv(array));

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