Binary file read write

Question

OK I have a binary file that needs to be able to read and then write to from csv data.

I have about 12k records that needs to converted from csv to binary, This hard for me to wrap my head around it personally. Any help would be appreciated. C# with visual studio is what I am using.

This is the file that I am reading

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                            310         KEITH                                   SFGEH6                                                                          BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        å¤_                    š™ÏA                                                                                   310         KEITH                                   OSAD                                    SDNVCS                                  BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        ¤_                      B                                                                                   310         57I M4                                  8M4M8                                   8M                                      BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        ?¤_                      8A                                                                                   310         WERTHWR                                 SFGHERH                                                                         BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        À¤_                      B                                                                                   310         HMDFGH                                  ADGNBSFDGNFS                                                                    BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        ö¤_                      LB                                                                                   310         GHMNDGMH                                SFMSFGHMNS                                                                      BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        ¤_                      8B                                                                                   310         FGSXFDGH                                SDGHSDHG                                                                        BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        þ$¤_                      ˜A                                                                                   310         HTAH                                    AFGHBADF                                                                        BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        &¤_                      ÈA                                                                                   310         ADHAD                                   ADGH                                                                            BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        ©)¤_                      |B                                                                                   310         TYDJU                                   DGTJ                                                                            BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        &*¤_                      °B                                                                                   310         E57IE5                                  ETUI                                                                            BRENTWOOD                               CA 90049                                                                                                                                                                        J,¤_                    ÍÌ\@                                                                                   207                                                                                                                                 TOP                                     ME 04011 

and this is the structure I am told. Each record has the following structure: #define DELIVERY_MAX_HISTORY 6

#pragma pack(push,1)
typedef struct 
{
  char area_code[4];
    char phone[8];
    char name[40];
    char address1[40];
    char address2[40];
    char city[40];
    char state[3];
    char zip[13];
    char directions1[40];
    char directions2[40];
    char comment1[40];
    char comment2[40];
    unsigned long last_order_dates[DELIVERY_MAX_HISTORY];
    float last_order_totals[DELIVERY_MAX_HISTORY];
    short last_order_check_num[DELIVERY_MAX_HISTORY];
    char has_bad_checks;
    char ext[10];   // Currently only 4 bytes are allowed
    char Zone[10];  // not unused
    char extra[31];
 } delivery_data_type;
#pragma pack(pop)

OK so have put this together but I have no data output to the.bin file. it just sits and run and runs

 class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {

        using(var reader = new StreamReader(@"c:\test\custdel.csv"))
        Console.WriteLine("DELIVERY Converter");
        var serializer = new BinarySerializer();
        using var csv = new CsvReader(Console.In, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
        var persons = csv.GetRecords<Person>();
        using var file = new FileStream("out.bin", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
        foreach (var person in persons)
        {
            serializer.Serialize(file, person);
        }
    }


    public class Person
    {
        [FieldOrder(0)]  // from BinarySerialization
        public string areacode { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(1)]
        public string phone { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(2)]
        public int name { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(3)]
        public string ddress1 { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(4)]
        public int address2 { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(5)]
        public string city { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(6)]
        public int state { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(7)]
        public string zip { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(8)]
        public int directions1 { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(9)]
        public string directions2 { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(10)]
        public int comment1 { get; set; }
        [FieldOrder(11)]
        public string comment2 { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(12)]
        public int has_bad_checks { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(13)]
        public string ext { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(14)]
        public int Zone { get; set; }
        [FieldOrder(15)]
        public string extra { get; set; }

       
    }
}

and this is the csv file

FieldOrder(0),FieldOrder(1),FieldOrder(2),FieldOrder(3),FieldOrder(4),FieldOrder(5),FieldOrder(6),FieldOrder(7),FieldOrder(8),FieldOrder(9),FieldOrder(10),FieldOrder(11),FieldOrder(12),FieldOrder(13),FieldOrder(14),FieldOrder(15)

207,207-210-2127,ADRIAN,160 COLUMBIA AVE,,BRUNSWICK,ME,4011,,,,,,,, 207,446-1989,ANNA,16 BRUNSWICK STATION,,BRUNSWICK,ME,,secondfloor,,,,,,,

ok I have found that problem and resolved and on to the next one. Getting an error when debugging at the "foreach (var person in person)" and this is what I am getting for the error CsvHelper.TypeConversion.TypeConverterException: 'The conversion cannot be performed. Text: 'name' MemberType: System.Int32 TypeConverter: 'CsvHelper.TypeConversion.Int32Converter' IReader state: ColumnCount: 0 CurrentIndex: 2 HeaderRecord:

and my code change also and I removed the header from the csv file as I was getting another error on the headers:

 {

        Console.WriteLine("DELIVERY Converter");

        var config = new CsvConfiguration(CultureInfo.InvariantCulture)
        {
            HasHeaderRecord = false,
        };

        using (var reader = new StreamReader(@"c:\test\custdel.csv"))
        using (var csv = new CsvReader(reader, config))
        {
            var persons = csv.GetRecords<Person>();

            var serializer = new BinarySerializer();

            using var file = new FileStream("out.bin", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
            foreach (var person in persons)
            {
                serializer.Serialize(file, person);
            }
        }
    }

Answer 1

You could try something like

using BinarySerialization;
using CsvHelper;
...
    public class Person
    {
        [FieldOrder(0)]  // from BinarySerialization
        public string FirstName { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(1)]
        public string LastName { get; set; }

        [FieldOrder(2)]
        public int ID { get; set; }
    }

    private static void Main()
    {
        var serializer = new BinarySerializer();
        using var csv = new CsvReader(Console.In, CultureInfo.InvariantCulture);
        var persons = csv.GetRecords<Person>();
        using var file = new FileStream("out.bin", FileMode.Create, FileAccess.Write);
        foreach (var person in persons)
        {
            serializer.Serialize(file, person);
        }
    }

It reads cvs from standard input and write binary representation to out.bin

See https://github.com/jefffhaynes/BinarySerializer and https://joshclose.github.io/CsvHelper/ for details

Example of file that you reading looks not like csv, so maybe you should consider something like https://github.com/mikeacjones/FixedWidthFileUtils to read file