Is there a quick way to convert an entity to .csv file?

Question

at present, I have:

        string outputRow = string.Empty;
        foreach (var entityObject in entityObjects)
        {
            outputRow = entityObject.field1 + "," + entityObject.Field2  etc....
        }

I'm still new to the Entity Framework, is there a quicker way?

Answer 1

Sample code that shows a simple yet powerful way of accomplishing what you want with no need to hard code property names (using reflection):

 /// <summary>
 /// Creates a comma delimeted string of all the objects property values names.
 /// </summary>
 /// <param name="obj">object.</param>
 /// <returns>string.</returns>
 public static string ObjectToCsvData(object obj)
 {
     if (obj == null)
     {
         throw new ArgumentNullException("obj", "Value can not be null or Nothing!");
     }

     StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
     Type t = obj.GetType();
     PropertyInfo[] pi = t.GetProperties();

     for (int index = 0; index < pi.Length; index++)
     {
         sb.Append(pi[index].GetValue(obj, null));

         if (index < pi.Length - 1)
         {
            sb.Append(",");
         }
     }

     return sb.ToString();
 }

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