C# Join two DataTables

Question

I'm trying to join two datatables, both got the same amount of rows and just one column. Is there any fancy way in C# to do that? In result I need datatable with two columns where first row of first column is next to first row of second column.

Answer 1

Here's one way to do this, so basically it's using the overload of .Select that provides an index of the current position within the iteration to lookup the corresponding row in table2 that we're currently looking at in table1 . We produce an object array with the two items in from each table for each row. Then we can just use LoadDataRow to put them into a destination table with two columns.

// create a target table with 2 columns
DataTable destinationTable = new DataTable();
destinationTable.Columns.Add("Col1");
destinationTable.Columns.Add("Col2");

// select all the rows from the first table, combined with the corresponding value for that row in the second table
var rowsCombined = table1
    .AsEnumerable()
    .Select((row, rowNumber) => new object[] { row[0], table2.Rows[rowNumber][0] });

foreach (var data in rowsCombined)
    destinationTable.LoadDataRow(data, true);       

Answer 2

From the ANSWER on this link by Tim Schmelter....

public static DataTable MergeAll(this IList<DataTable> tables, String   primaryKeyColumn)
{
    if (!tables.Any())
        throw new ArgumentException("Tables must not be empty", "tables");
    if(primaryKeyColumn != null)
        foreach(DataTable t in tables)
            if(!t.Columns.Contains(primaryKeyColumn))
                throw new ArgumentException("All tables must have the specified primarykey column " + primaryKeyColumn, "primaryKeyColumn");

    if(tables.Count == 1)
        return tables[0];

    DataTable table = new DataTable("TblUnion");
    table.BeginLoadData(); // Turns off notifications, index maintenance, and constraints while loading data
    foreach (DataTable t in tables)
    {
        table.Merge(t); // same as table.Merge(t, false, MissingSchemaAction.Add);
    }
    table.EndLoadData();

    if (primaryKeyColumn != null)
    {
        // since we might have no real primary keys defined, the rows now might have repeating fields
        // so now we're going to "join" these rows ...
        var pkGroups = table.AsEnumerable()
            .GroupBy(r => r[primaryKeyColumn]);
        var dupGroups = pkGroups.Where(g => g.Count() > 1);
        foreach (var grpDup in dupGroups)
        { 
            // use first row and modify it
            DataRow firstRow = grpDup.First();
            foreach (DataColumn c in table.Columns)
            {
                if (firstRow.IsNull(c))
                {
                    DataRow firstNotNullRow =  grpDup.Skip(1).FirstOrDefault(r => !r.IsNull(c));
                    if (firstNotNullRow != null)
                        firstRow[c] = firstNotNullRow[c];
                }
            }
            // remove all but first row
            var rowsToRemove = grpDup.Skip(1);
            foreach(DataRow rowToRemove in rowsToRemove)
                table.Rows.Remove(rowToRemove);
        }
    }

    return table;
}

You can call it in this way:

var tables = new[] { tblA, tblB, tblC };
DataTable TblUnion = tables.MergeAll("c1");

With some sample data:

var tblA = new DataTable();
tblA.Columns.Add("c1", typeof(int));
tblA.Columns.Add("c2", typeof(int));
tblA.Columns.Add("c3", typeof(string));
tblA.Columns.Add("c4", typeof(char));

var tblB = new DataTable();
tblB.Columns.Add("c1", typeof(int));
tblB.Columns.Add("c5", typeof(int));
tblB.Columns.Add("c6", typeof(string));
tblB.Columns.Add("c7", typeof(char));

var tblC = new DataTable();
tblC.Columns.Add("c1", typeof(int));
tblC.Columns.Add("c8", typeof(int));
tblC.Columns.Add("c9", typeof(string));
tblC.Columns.Add("c10", typeof(char));

tblA.Rows.Add(1, 8500, "abc", 'A');
tblA.Rows.Add(2, 950, "cde", 'B');
tblA.Rows.Add(3, 150, "efg", 'C');
tblA.Rows.Add(4, 850, "ghi", 'D');
tblA.Rows.Add(5, 50, "ijk", 'E');

tblB.Rows.Add(1, 7500, "klm", 'F');
tblB.Rows.Add(2, 900, "mno", 'G');
tblB.Rows.Add(3, 150, "opq", 'H');
tblB.Rows.Add(4, 850, "qrs", 'I');
tblB.Rows.Add(5, 50, "stu", 'J');

tblC.Rows.Add(1, 7500, "uvw", 'K');
tblC.Rows.Add(2, 900, "wxy", 'L');
tblC.Rows.Add(3, 150, "yza", 'M');
tblC.Rows.Add(4, 850, "ABC", 'N');
tblC.Rows.Add(5, 50, "CDE", 'O');

After the mergeAll call:

Hope this helps...