Entity Framework Effort CSV File Format

CSV file format in Effort

CsvDataLoader component accepts files that follow the traditional CSV format:

• The first row contains the header names.
• Comma ( , ) is the separator character.
• Double quote ( " ) is the delimiter character.
• Double double quote ( "" ) is used to express a single double quote between delimiters.

There are some additional requirements that need to be taken into consideration.

• Numbers and dates are parsed with invariant culture setting.
• Binaries are encoded in base64 format.
• Null values are represented with empty fields without delimiters.
• Empty strings are represented by empty fields with a delimiter.
• Backslash serves as an escape character for backslash and newline characters.

These are all the rules that need to be followed. The following example demonstrates the rules by representing a compatible CSV file.

Sample CSV File

id,name,birthdate,reportto,storages,photo
"JD","John Doe",01/23/1982,"MHS","\\\\server1\\share8\r\n\\\\server2\share3",
"MHS","Michael ""h4x0r"" Smith",05/12/1975,,"","ZzVlKyszZjQ5M2YzNA=="

The first line contains the name of the table fields, and the remaining lines represent a data row.