'How to ignore empty rows in CSV when reading

Trying to read a CSV file that has empty rows (usually at the end) using CsvHelper.GetRecords<T>().

Without the empty rows this works a treat. However if the CSV file has an empty row (defined as , , , , , ) then it throws a TypeConverterException

Text: ''
MemberType: IntelligentEditing.PerfectIt.Core.DataTypes.Styles.StyleRuleType
TypeConverter: 'CsvHelper.TypeConversion.EnumConverter'

I have gone through the documentation (https://joshclose.github.io/CsvHelper/api/CsvHelper.Configuration/Configuration/) and have tried setting up the configuration object to IgnoreBlankLines = true however this has not worked.

Simplified for an example:

public enum ItemTypeEnum
{
    Unknown = 0,
    Accounts = 1,
    HR = 2,
}


public class CsvItemDto
{
    public int Id { get; set; }

    public string Value { get; set; }

    public ItemTypeEnum ItemType { get; set; }
}

.
.
.
var configuration = new Configuration()
{
    HasHeaderRecord = true,
    HeaderValidated = null,
    MissingFieldFound = null,
    IgnoreBlankLines = true,

};
var csv = new CsvReader(textReader, configuration);
var rows = csv.GetRecords<CsvItemDto>();


if (rows != null)
{
    var items = rows.ToList();
    //Throws exception here
}

The CSV would usually contain something like this:

Id,Value,ItemType
1,This,Unknown
2,That,Accounts
3,Other,HR
,,
,,

I expected the IgnoreBlankLines to ignore the blank rows in the CSV but it is not. Any ideas?

c++sharpcsvcsvhelper


Solution 1:[1]

you can try to implement ShouldSkipRecord on Configuration to choose skip or not

var configuration = new Configuration () {
                HasHeaderRecord = true,
                HeaderValidated = null,
                MissingFieldFound = null,
                IgnoreBlankLines = true,
                ShouldSkipRecord = (records) =>
                {
                    // Implement logic here
                    return false;
                }
            };

Solution 2:[2]

@phat.huynh has the right idea. Just tell it to skip any record where all the fields are empty strings.

var configuration = new Configuration()
{
    HasHeaderRecord = true,
    HeaderValidated = null,
    MissingFieldFound = null,
    ShouldSkipRecord = record => record.Record.All(field => String.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(field))
};

Solution 3:[3]

An alternative way, in CsvHelper 23.0.0, is managing the reader exceptions

var conf = new CsvConfiguration(new CultureInfo("en-US"));
conf.ReadingExceptionOccurred = (exc) =>
{
    Console.WriteLine("Error");
    return false;
};

One can log it, throw it, bypass it returning false and even discriminate behaviors having a look at the exception source.

Sources

This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Overflow and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Source: Stack Overflow

Solution Source
Solution 1 Phat Huynh
Solution 2 thargenediad
Solution 3 Gonçalo Peres

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