Write Contents in a text file in a tabular order using C#

Question

I want to write contents into a text file from a DatagridView in my application. In my text file, I would like to follow a format like

Column1            Column2              Column3
[Cell1]            [Cell2]              [Cell3]
[Cell1]            [Cell2]              [Cell3]
[Cell1]            [Cell2]              [Cell3]

and so on in a tabular format. How do I efficiently do that as you see I'm bothered about the locations of text as well to bring about a tabular format in a text file (in Notepad).

Should I use char[] but I feel it might not be efficient. Pl guide with an efficient solution.

score 3 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 11 '12 at 13:42

3

I cannot write a complete solution here, but this is your starting point Formatting Types on MSDN,
in particular the paragraph regarding Composite Formatting

The key is string.Format with columns lenght specifiers like

string.Format("{0:D15}{1:D20}", rowColumn1, rowColumn2);

answered Mar 11 '12 at 13:42

Steve

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FormatSpecifiers are very useful... Thanks! – stack_pointer is EXTINCT Mar 11 '12 at 18:41
As a side note, remember that showing or printing your text file without a fixed width font, will result in columns not well aligned – Steve Mar 11 '12 at 19:09

MDMalik · Answer 2 · 2012-03-11T14:05:06.580

Here datagridview is the DataGirdView where all the data is present

C:\File.txt

is the file where all the data is stored.

      string data = String.Empty;
      for (int col = 0; col < datagridview.ColumnCount; col++)
      {
          data += Convert.ToString(datagridview.Columns[col].HeaderText);
      }
      data += "\n";
      for (int i = 0; i < datagridview.RowCount; i++)
        {
            for (int j = 0; j < datagridview.ColumnCount; j++)
            {
                data += Convert.ToString(datagridview.Rows[i].Cells[j].Value);
                data += "\t";
            }
            data += "\n";
        }
        StreamWriter SW;
        SW = File.AppendText(@"C:\File.txt");

        SW.WriteLine(data + Environment.NewLine);
        SW.Close();

This is not an Efficient solution I was expecting. – stack_pointer is EXTINCT Mar 11 '12 at 18:41 — stack_pointer is EXTINCT, Mar 11 '12 at 18:41

Write Contents in a text file in a tabular order using C#

2 Answers2