Reporting tool that reads any data files(.txt,.xml,.csv,.excel formats) provided and creates an output file in CSV format

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How to Create reporting tool that reads any data files in different formats and creates an output file in CSV format using Console application .

Posted 1-Nov-14 16:30pm

ch12

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George Jonsson · Answer 1 · 2014-11-01T16:51:00

One approach is to create an abstract base class with methods used to read a file.
For example:

C#

public abstract class FileReaderBase
{
    public FileReaderBase()
    {
    }
    
    public abstract MyOutputFormat Parse(string inputFileName);
    
}

Then create a class per format that inherits from the abstract base class.

Also create an output format to be used to save data in a CSV file.

Garth J Lancaster · Answer 2 · 2014-11-01T17:00:00

that's a big question - I'd suggest you start looking at this A Portable and Efficient Generic Parser for Flat Files[^] (and similar articles) if you really want to write one from scratch - its not difficult

Conceptually you need to

a) recognise each type of file
b) implement an Interface for a parser that can read the file type into an internal format
c) optionally map the input fields to the required output csv - not all fields in the input may be used for example, or re-ordered (I'd possibly use xml to describe the input file, mappings, and output file)
d) implement a csv output stage using (c)

there are 'EDI' translate engines for example that do all/some of what your asking - but many of these cost $$

btw - have you thought about a tool like Crystal reports or looked around and found something that you can drive/automate ?

Reporting tool that reads any data files(.txt,.xml,.csv,.excel formats) provided and creates an output file in CSV format

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