How do you read a CSV file and parse it into a list of objects?

Question

ICSM Computer · Answer

To read a CSV file and parse it into a list of objects in C#, you can use:
System.IO + string.Split() for simple CSVsLibraries like CsvHelper for more robust parsing (e.g., quotes, commas inside fields)
Option 1: Basic CSV Parsing (no quotes, no escaped commas)
Sample CSV (people.csv):
Id,Name,Email
1,John,john@example.com
2,Jane,jane@example.com
Model:
public class Person
{
    public int Id { get; set; }
    public string Name { get; set; }
    public string Email { get; set; }
}
Read and Parse:
var people = new Listandlt;Personandgt;();
var lines = File.ReadAllLines("people.csv");
foreach (var line in lines.Skip(1)) // Skip header
{
    var parts = line.Split(',');
    people.Add(new Person
    {
        Id = int.Parse(parts[0]),
        Name = parts[1],
        Email = parts[2]
    });
}
Option 2: Use CsvHelper (recommended for real-world use)
Install via NuGet:
dotnet add package CsvHelper
Parsing:
using CsvHelper;
using System.Globalization;
using System.IO;
using (var reader = new StreamReader("people.csv"))
using (var csv = new CsvReader(reader, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture))
{
    var people = csv.GetRecordsandlt;Personandgt;().ToList();
}
Handles quoted fields, escape characters, custom delimiters, etc.Fast and production-ready.
Tip:
If your CSV has a custom delimiter (e.g., ;), configure like this:
new CsvReader(reader, new CsvConfiguration(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
{
    Delimiter = ";"
});

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How do you read a CSV file and parse it into a list of objects?

ICSM Computer

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1 Answers

Option 1: Basic CSV Parsing (no quotes, no escaped commas)

Sample CSV (`people.csv`):

Model:

Read and Parse:

Option 2: Use CsvHelper (recommended for real-world use)

Parsing:

Tip:

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