How to parse a text file in C#.Net

Question

Hi..i want to know how can i parse a text file in Csharp.Net .I am giving an example of my textfile.This is the format of my textfile: CompanyName DepartMentNo:1234 Address: Date EmpID EmpName Address Department Position 08/08 001 Nazima address of emp Developer Fresher 08/08 002 Vali address of emp Developer Fresher 08/08 003 Farah address of emp DBAdmin Fresher Now i have to go thru each and every line i have to find the departmentNo and then it has to be inserted in SQL DB..Then i have to go thru the records and insert this records into SQL DB.. i have written a code for searching DepatmentNo but once the control comes to if condition it does not perform any operation and the control goes to next statement..May i know how can i retrieve those data and store it in database. This is my code: StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(file); string line = null; line = sr.ReadToEnd(); str = line.Trim().Split('
'); foreach (string item in str) { if (item.IndexOf("DepartmentNo")> -1) { string DNo1 = item.Substring(15, 23); DNo = Convert.ToInt32(DNo1); } } Hope u understood my doubt.And please do guide me..

Vulpes · Answer

The following code should collect all the department numbers from the text file: List deptNos = new List (); StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(file); string line = null; while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null) { line = line.Trim(); if (line.StartsWith("DepartMentNo")) { string DNo1 = line.Substring(13); DNo = Convert.ToInt32(DNo1); deptNos.Add(DNo); } } sr.Close(); How you collect the remaining data and store it in the SQL Server database will depend on: 1. Whether table(s) already exist in the database to accomodate these records. 2. Whether you've already set up a suitable DataSet and DataTable(s) to load the data from the .NET side and, if so, what are the names of the columns and their types.

Vulpes · Answer

OK, here's some code which now gets all the relevant data from the text file and writes it, in bulk, to the SQL Server database. Unless, you need to get the Department numbers separately for some reason, you might as well read all the data in one go. I've assumed that each DataRow in the DataTable will have a column for the Department number as well as the other 6 fields and that these will map directly to the columns of the table in the database itself. For now, I've assumed that the address field will not use spaces to delimit words - if it does, then more complex parsing will be needed: StreamReader sr = new StreamReader(file); string line = null; DataRow dr = null; while ((line = sr.ReadLine()) != null) { line = line.Trim(); if (line == "" || line.StartsWith("CompanyName") || line.StartsWith("Address") || line.StartsWith("Date")) { continue; } else if (line.StartsWith("DepartMentNo")) { string DNo1 = line.Substring(13); DNo = Convert.ToInt32(DNo1); } else // must be a data line { dr = dt.NewRow(); string[] fields = line.Split(new string[]{" "}, StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries); if (fields.Length != 6) continue ; // something's wrong, ignore line for now dr["DepartMentNo"] = DNo; // last assigned value for department no dr["Date"] = DateTime.Parse(fields[0]); dr["EmpId"] = fields[1]; dr["EmpName"] = fields[2]; dr["Address"] = fields[3]; dr["Department"] = fields[4]; dr["Position"] = fields[5]; dt.Rows.Add(dr); } } sr.Close(); string connString = "whatever"; using (SqlConnection conn = new SqlConnection(connString)) { conn.Open(); using (SqlBulkCopy bulkCopy = new SqlBulkCopy(conn)) { bulkCopy.DestinationTableName = "whatever"; try { bulkCopy.WriteToServer(dt); } catch (Exception ex) { Console.WriteLine(ex.Message); } } }

nazima · Answer

I have already created a table in the database and have to extract those records and store it in database table