Convert generic List/Enumerable to DataTable?

Question

I have few methods that returns different Generic Lists.

Exists in .net any class static method or whatever to convert any list into a datatable? The only thing that i can imagine is use Reflection to do this.

IF i have this:

List<Whatever> whatever = new List<Whatever>();

(This next code doesn't work of course, but i would like to have the possibility of:

DataTable dt = (DataTable) whatever;

Mertiemerton

Of course, a good question would be "why?" - when List<T> is in many cases a better tool than DataTable ;-p Each to their own, I guess... – Pouliot

I think this one may be a duplicate of this question: #523653 It even has a near identical answer. :-) – Weird

@MarcGravell: My "why?" is List<T> manipulation (Traversing columns & rows). I'm trying to make a pivot from a List<T> and accessing the properties via reflexion it's a pain. I'm doing it wrong? – Tameika

@Eduardo there are any number of tools to remove the reflection pain there - FastMember leaps to mind. It could also be that a DataTable is useful to specific scenarios - it all depends on the context. Perhaps the biggest problem is people using DataTable for all data storage just because it exists, without taking the time to consider the options and their scenario. – Pouliot

@EduardoMolteni if you are interested, I updated FastMember to have direct support for this - see the updated answer – Pouliot

If you just what to pivot why not use the linqLib linqlib.codeplex.com it implements almost anything you can think of for IEnumerable. – Phagocyte

Cross post to this answer that helped me. https://mcmap.net/q/101271/-list-lt-t-gt-to-dataview – Gimmal

I have a need to transfer a List from a EnumerateDirectories to a datatable so I can use a bulkcopy into a database. As things stand, my "foreach( item in list)" to build a datatable is very slow. I have the same question as the OP... – Airscrew

My use case is SQL Bulk Insert. – Deplete

Answer 1

Here's a nice 2013 update using FastMember from NuGet:

IEnumerable<SomeType> data = ...
DataTable table = new DataTable();
using(var reader = ObjectReader.Create(data)) {
    table.Load(reader);
}

This uses FastMember's meta-programming API for maximum performance. If you want to restrict it to particular members (or enforce the order), then you can do that too:

IEnumerable<SomeType> data = ...
DataTable table = new DataTable();
using(var reader = ObjectReader.Create(data, "Id", "Name", "Description")) {
    table.Load(reader);
}

Editor's Dis/claimer: FastMember is a Marc Gravell project. It's gold and full-on flies!

---

Yes, this is pretty much the exact opposite of this one; reflection would suffice - or if you need quicker, HyperDescriptor in 2.0, or maybe Expression in 3.5. Actually, HyperDescriptor should be more than adequate.

For example:

// remove "this" if not on C# 3.0 / .NET 3.5
public static DataTable ToDataTable<T>(this IList<T> data)
{
    PropertyDescriptorCollection props =
        TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
    DataTable table = new DataTable();
    for(int i = 0 ; i < props.Count ; i++)
    {
        PropertyDescriptor prop = props[i];
        table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, prop.PropertyType);
    }
    object[] values = new object[props.Count];
    foreach (T item in data)
    {
        for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
        {
            values[i] = props[i].GetValue(item);
        }
        table.Rows.Add(values);
    }
    return table;        
}

Now with one line you can make this many many times faster than reflection (by enabling HyperDescriptor for the object-type T).

---

Edit re performance query; here's a test rig with results:

Vanilla 27179
Hyper   6997

I suspect that the bottleneck has shifted from member-access to DataTable performance... I doubt you'll improve much on that...

Code:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.ComponentModel;
using System.Data;
using System.Diagnostics;
public class MyData
{
    public int A { get; set; }
    public string B { get; set; }
    public DateTime C { get; set; }
    public decimal D { get; set; }
    public string E { get; set; }
    public int F { get; set; }
}

static class Program
{
    static void RunTest(List<MyData> data, string caption)
    {
        GC.Collect(GC.MaxGeneration, GCCollectionMode.Forced);
        GC.WaitForPendingFinalizers();
        GC.WaitForFullGCComplete();
        Stopwatch watch = Stopwatch.StartNew();
        for (int i = 0; i < 500; i++)
        {
            data.ToDataTable();
        }
        watch.Stop();
        Console.WriteLine(caption + "\t" + watch.ElapsedMilliseconds);
    }
    static void Main()
    {
        List<MyData> foos = new List<MyData>();
        for (int i = 0 ; i < 5000 ; i++ ){
            foos.Add(new MyData
            { // just gibberish...
                A = i,
                B = i.ToString(),
                C = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(i),
                D = i,
                E = "hello",
                F = i * 2
            });
        }
        RunTest(foos, "Vanilla");
        Hyper.ComponentModel.HyperTypeDescriptionProvider.Add(
            typeof(MyData));
        RunTest(foos, "Hyper");
        Console.ReadLine(); // return to exit        
    }
}

Pouliot

Well "as is", it'll be about as quick as reflection. If you enable HyperDescriptor, it will thrash reflection hands down... I'll run a quick test... (2 minutes) – Pouliot

Expression was mentioned for 3.5. If used how would it affect the code, is there any sample ? – Manned

@Manned - it would make it more complex ;-p In all seriousness, I could put an example up but it would take quite a bit of effort - would it still be of interest? – Pouliot

I use this to debug Lists with the Visual Studio nice "grid viewer" that works for datatables. – Heptavalent

@MarcGravell Yes I would be very interested in the Expression solution. For needing something fast + learning effect. Thank you Marc! – Chase

How do you make this a non-static method? I can't seem to adapt this to work with a normal "non static" class without getting compilation errors. – Greyhen

@Nick you... remove the static modifier; note that a non-static class can still have static methods; it is the other way around that is blocked: a static class cannot have instance methods – Pouliot

hi marc, FastMember is used to map IEnumerable<T> to DataTable right? Do you have something in reverse? DataTable to IEnumerable<T>? – Lycopodium

I found this extention fail for input: List<string>(){"a","b","c"} – Radbun

It's probably worth mentioning that you are the author of FastMember for transparency. Your edit comes off as if it's just this great package that's now available that you happened to have come across. – Antitrust

@Antitrust I try hard to remember to explicitly disclose such things, but since I am not selling anything (but rather am making many hours of work freely available) I confess I don't feel huge amounts of guilt here... – Pouliot

This will fail if T has a public property that is WriteOnly(which has a set but not get) – Technic

Another thing,(I might be wrong about FastMember) but using Reflection(as in your code) allows you to add more goodies, such as, friendlier name for each data column, formatting, validations declaratively etc. – Technic

your method ToDataTable doesnt support nullable fields: Additional information: DataSet does not support System.Nullable<>. – Warga

Answer 2

I had to modify Marc Gravell's sample code to handle nullable types and null values. I have included a working version below. Thanks Marc.

public static DataTable ToDataTable<T>(this IList<T> data)
{
    PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = 
        TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
    DataTable table = new DataTable();
    foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
        table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);
    foreach (T item in data)
    {
        DataRow row = table.NewRow();
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
             row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
        table.Rows.Add(row);
    }
    return table;
}

Trivalent

This is an excellent answer. I would love to see this example expanded out to handle a group by list that would contain an item property and have columns created in the same way above. – Brittabrittain

To achieve that @Jim Beam, change the method signature to accept the return of GroupBy: public static DataTable ToDataTable<TKey, T>(this IEnumerable<IGrouping<TKey, T>> data) Then, add an extra column before the foreach loop: table.Columns.Add("Key", Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(typeof(TKey)) ?? typeof(TKey)); And then add a loop around the data loop where you iterate the groups: foreach (IGrouping<TKey, T> group in data) { foreach (T item in group.Items) { See this GIST for full details: gist.github.com/rickdailey/8679306 – Numen

hey, is there a way to handle an object with inner objects? I just want the inner Properties to appear as columns after the parent object's columns – Pengelly

@heyNow, I am sure that there is. But I didn't really have a need for that functionality with what I was doing and so left it for someone else to extend. :) – Trivalent

This is an old post so not sure how useful this comment is, but there is one sneaky bug in this ToDataTable method. If T implements an interface typeof(T) may return the interface type rather than the actual class of the object, resulting in an empty DataTable. Replacing it with data.First().GetType() should fix it. – Abrupt

Why is it that when I put this code in my program, I got this error? "extension method must be defined in a non-generic static class" – Intellectual

am using hyperproperty. compiled it to target .net 4.5.2. with that the above code is returning empty dataset. this line TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(type(T)) is returning properties object with count 0 becacuse of which table is not getting build. can anyone help? thanks. – Killdeer

for anyone who can't get this to work please take a big note that this doesn't work with fields.it only works with properties. – Perseus

Answer 3

Another approach is the above:

  List<WhateEver> lst = getdata();
  string json = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(lst);
  DataTable pDt = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DataTable>(json);

Ruralize

Very very good...but it threw Exception of type 'System.OutOfMemoryException' . I used it with 500 000 items...But thank you for this. – Siderite

This is by far the cleanest solution I have found on the net. Great work! – Offside

Be careful as the data type of DataTable is not same as List<object>. For example: decimal in object is double in DataTable. – Bumblebee

Answer 4

A small change to Marc's answer to make it work with value types like List<string> to data table:

public static DataTable ListToDataTable<T>(IList<T> data)
{
    DataTable table = new DataTable();

    //special handling for value types and string
    if (typeof(T).IsValueType || typeof(T).Equals(typeof(string)))
    {

        DataColumn dc = new DataColumn("Value", typeof(T));
        table.Columns.Add(dc);
        foreach (T item in data)
        {
            DataRow dr = table.NewRow();
            dr[0] = item;
            table.Rows.Add(dr);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
        {
            table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);
        }
        foreach (T item in data)
        {
            DataRow row = table.NewRow();
            foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
            {
                try
                {
                    row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
                }
                catch (Exception ex)
                {
                    row[prop.Name] = DBNull.Value;
                }
            }
            table.Rows.Add(row);
        }
    }
    return table;
}

Rodl

How to make it for List<int> ? – Allspice

Method above will work for int (and other value types) too... int is a value type. see: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/s1ax56ch.aspx – Rodl

I like this because it does not depend on using an extension method. Works well for older codebases that may not have access to Extension Methods. – Grouper

Answer 5

This is a simple mix of the solutions. It work with Nullable types.

public static DataTable ToDataTable<T>(this IList<T> list)
{
  PropertyDescriptorCollection props = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
  DataTable table = new DataTable();
  for (int i = 0; i < props.Count; i++)
  {
    PropertyDescriptor prop = props[i];
    table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);
  }
  object[] values = new object[props.Count];
  foreach (T item in list)
  {
    for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
      values[i] = props[i].GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
    table.Rows.Add(values);
  }
  return table;
}

Glennieglennis

This solution is error prone because it depends on the properties declaration order in T class. – Moynihan

Answer 6

This link on MSDN is worth a visit: How to: Implement CopyToDataTable<T> Where the Generic Type T Is Not a DataRow

This adds an extension method that lets you do this:

// Create a sequence. 
Item[] items = new Item[] 
{ new Book{Id = 1, Price = 13.50, Genre = "Comedy", Author = "Gustavo Achong"}, 
  new Book{Id = 2, Price = 8.50, Genre = "Drama", Author = "Jessie Zeng"},
  new Movie{Id = 1, Price = 22.99, Genre = "Comedy", Director = "Marissa Barnes"},
  new Movie{Id = 1, Price = 13.40, Genre = "Action", Director = "Emmanuel Fernandez"}};

// Query for items with price greater than 9.99.
var query = from i in items
             where i.Price > 9.99
             orderby i.Price
             select i;

// Load the query results into new DataTable.
DataTable table = query.CopyToDataTable();

Legnica

@PaulWilliams Thanks, I use this code for years without a problem so far. But since I didn't copy the example code from microsoft and only linked to the website the other solutions are at least more compliant with the answer best practices stackoverflow.com/help/how-to-answer – Stile

Answer 7

List<YourModel> data = new List<YourModel>();
DataTable dataTable = Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<DataTable>(Newtonsoft.Json.JsonConvert.SerializeObject(data));

Rollicking

While this code may answer the question, providing additional context regarding how and/or why it solves the problem would improve the answer's long-term value. – Haviland

awesome.. I use this way to achieve this case – Rivy

Answer 8

public DataTable ConvertToDataTable<T>(IList<T> data)
{
    PropertyDescriptorCollection properties =
        TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));

    DataTable table = new DataTable();

    foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
            table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);

    foreach (T item in data)
    {
        DataRow row = table.NewRow();
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
        {
           row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
        }
        table.Rows.Add(row);
    }
    return table;
}

Valparaiso

This solution is error prone because it depends on the properties declaration order in T class. – Moynihan

Answer 9

try this

public static DataTable ListToDataTable<T>(IList<T> lst)
{

    currentDT = CreateTable<T>();

    Type entType = typeof(T);

    PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(entType);
    foreach (T item in lst)
    {
        DataRow row = currentDT.NewRow();
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
        {

            if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(Nullable<decimal>) || prop.PropertyType == typeof(Nullable<int>) || prop.PropertyType == typeof(Nullable<Int64>))
            {
                if (prop.GetValue(item) == null)
                    row[prop.Name] = 0;
                else
                    row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item);
            }
            else
                row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item);                    

        }
        currentDT.Rows.Add(row);
    }

    return currentDT;
}

public static DataTable CreateTable<T>()
{
    Type entType = typeof(T);
    DataTable tbl = new DataTable(DTName);
    PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(entType);
    foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
    {
        if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(Nullable<decimal>))
             tbl.Columns.Add(prop.Name, typeof(decimal));
        else if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(Nullable<int>))
            tbl.Columns.Add(prop.Name, typeof(int));
        else if (prop.PropertyType == typeof(Nullable<Int64>))
            tbl.Columns.Add(prop.Name, typeof(Int64));
        else
             tbl.Columns.Add(prop.Name, prop.PropertyType);
    }
    return tbl;
}

Vanadinite

does not compile – Thibodeau

Answer 10

It's also possible through XmlSerialization.
The idea is - serialize to `XML` and then `readXml` method of `DataSet`.

I use this code (from an answer in SO, forgot where)

        public static string SerializeXml<T>(T value) where T : class
    {
        if (value == null)
        {
            return null;
        }

        XmlSerializer serializer = new XmlSerializer(typeof(T));

        XmlWriterSettings settings = new XmlWriterSettings();

        settings.Encoding = new UnicodeEncoding(false, false);
        settings.Indent = false;
        settings.OmitXmlDeclaration = false;
        // no BOM in a .NET string

        using (StringWriter textWriter = new StringWriter())
        {
            using (XmlWriter xmlWriter = XmlWriter.Create(textWriter, settings))
            {
               serializer.Serialize(xmlWriter, value);
            }
            return textWriter.ToString();
        }
    }

so then it's as simple as:

            string xmlString = Utility.SerializeXml(trans.InnerList);

        DataSet ds = new DataSet("New_DataSet");
        using (XmlReader reader = XmlReader.Create(new StringReader(xmlString)))
        { 
            ds.Locale = System.Threading.Thread.CurrentThread.CurrentCulture;
            ds.ReadXml(reader); 
        }

Not sure how it stands against all the other answers to this post, but it's also a possibility.

Elderberry

Answer 11

I've written a small library myself to accomplish this task. It uses reflection only for the first time an object type is to be translated to a datatable. It emits a method that will do all the work translating an object type.

Its blazing fast. You can find it here:

• ToDataTable() in MoreLinq on GitHub
• original: ModelShredder on GoogleCode, was merged into MoreLinq, which moved from GoogleCode to GitHub

Miner

Answer 12

Marc Gravell's answer but in VB.NET

Public Shared Function ToDataTable(Of T)(data As IList(Of T)) As DataTable
    Dim props As PropertyDescriptorCollection = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(GetType(T))
    Dim table As New DataTable()
    For i As Integer = 0 To props.Count - 1
            Dim prop As PropertyDescriptor = props(i)
            table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, prop.PropertyType)
    Next
    Dim values As Object() = New Object(props.Count - 1) {}
    For Each item As T In data
            For i As Integer = 0 To values.Length - 1
                    values(i) = props(i).GetValue(item)
            Next
            table.Rows.Add(values)
    Next
    Return table
End Function

Gamine

Answer 13

To Convert Generic list into DataTable

using Newtonsoft.Json;

public DataTable GenericToDataTable(IList<T> list)
{
    var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(list);
    DataTable dt = (DataTable)JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json, (typeof(DataTable)));
    return dt;
}

Scourge

Answer 14

A 2019 answer if you're using .NET Core - use the Nuget ToDataTable library. Advantages:

• Better performance than FastMember
• Also creates structured SqlParameters for use as SQL Server Table-Valued Parameters

Disclaimer - I'm the author of ToDataTable

Performance - I span up some Benchmark .Net tests and included them in the ToDataTable repo. The results were as follows:

Creating a 100,000 Row Datatable:

                           MacOS         Windows
Reflection                 818.5 ms      818.3 ms
FastMember from           1105.5 ms      976.4 ms
 Mark's answer
Improved FastMember        524.6 ms      456.4 ms
ToDataTable                449.0 ms      376.5 ms

The FastMember method suggested in Marc's answer seemed to perform worse than Mary's answer which used reflection, but I rolled another method using a FastMember TypeAccessor and it performed much better. Nevertheless the ToDataTable package outperformed the lot.

Euphrasy

Could I add MoreLinq ToDataTable() to the benchmark? – Hedger

Yes, good idea. Would be interested to see how it compares. – Euphrasy

Answer 15

I also had to come up with an alternate solution, as none of the options listed here worked in my case. I was using an IEnumerable which returned an IEnumerable and the properties couldn't be enumerated. This did the trick:

// remove "this" if not on C# 3.0 / .NET 3.5
public static DataTable ConvertToDataTable<T>(this IEnumerable<T> data)
{
    List<IDataRecord> list = data.Cast<IDataRecord>().ToList();

    PropertyDescriptorCollection props = null;
    DataTable table = new DataTable();
    if (list != null && list.Count > 0)
    {
        props = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(list[0]);
        for (int i = 0; i < props.Count; i++)
        {
            PropertyDescriptor prop = props[i];
            table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);
        }
    }
    if (props != null)
    {
        object[] values = new object[props.Count];
        foreach (T item in data)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
            {
                values[i] = props[i].GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
            }
            table.Rows.Add(values);
        }
    }
    return table;
}

Cathar

Answer 16

  using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Web;
using System.Web.UI;
using System.Web.UI.WebControls;
using System.Data;
using System.ComponentModel;

public partial class Default3 : System.Web.UI.Page
{
    protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
    {
        DataTable dt = new DataTable();
        dt = lstEmployee.ConvertToDataTable();
    }
    public static DataTable ConvertToDataTable<T>(IList<T> list) where T : class
    {
        try
        {
            DataTable table = CreateDataTable<T>();
            Type objType = typeof(T);
            PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(objType);
            foreach (T item in list)
            {
                DataRow row = table.NewRow();
                foreach (PropertyDescriptor property in properties)
                {
                    if (!CanUseType(property.PropertyType)) continue;
                    row[property.Name] = property.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
                }

                table.Rows.Add(row);
            }
            return table;
        }
        catch (DataException ex)
        {
            return null;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            return null;
        }

    }
    private static DataTable CreateDataTable<T>() where T : class
    {
        Type objType = typeof(T);
        DataTable table = new DataTable(objType.Name);
        PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(objType);
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor property in properties)
        {
            Type propertyType = property.PropertyType;
            if (!CanUseType(propertyType)) continue;

            //nullables must use underlying types
            if (propertyType.IsGenericType && propertyType.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Nullable<>))
                propertyType = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(propertyType);
            //enums also need special treatment
            if (propertyType.IsEnum)
                propertyType = Enum.GetUnderlyingType(propertyType);
            table.Columns.Add(property.Name, propertyType);
        }
        return table;
    }


    private static bool CanUseType(Type propertyType)
    {
        //only strings and value types
        if (propertyType.IsArray) return false;
        if (!propertyType.IsValueType && propertyType != typeof(string)) return false;
        return true;
    }
}

Dyeline

Answer 17

I realize that this has been closed for a while; however, I had a solution to this specific problem but needed a slight twist: the columns and data table needed to be predefined / already instantiated. Then I needed to simply insert the types into the data table.

So here's an example of what I did:

public static class Test
{
    public static void Main()
    {
        var dataTable = new System.Data.DataTable(Guid.NewGuid().ToString());

        var columnCode = new DataColumn("Code");
        var columnLength = new DataColumn("Length");
        var columnProduct = new DataColumn("Product");

        dataTable.Columns.AddRange(new DataColumn[]
            {
                columnCode,
                columnLength,
                columnProduct
            });

        var item = new List<SomeClass>();

        item.Select(data => new
        {
            data.Id,
            data.Name,
            data.SomeValue
        }).AddToDataTable(dataTable);
    }
}

static class Extensions
{
    public static void AddToDataTable<T>(this IEnumerable<T> enumerable, System.Data.DataTable table)
    {
        if (enumerable.FirstOrDefault() == null)
        {
            table.Rows.Add(new[] {string.Empty});
            return;
        }

        var properties = enumerable.FirstOrDefault().GetType().GetProperties();

        foreach (var item in enumerable)
        {
            var row = table.NewRow();
            foreach (var property in properties)
            {
                row[property.Name] = item.GetType().InvokeMember(property.Name, BindingFlags.GetProperty, null, item, null);
            }
            table.Rows.Add(row);
        }
    }
}

Aretina

can you show me with example. how I use extension method for addtodataTable() methods – Ileus

This code has an example in it already - take a look at the Main() method. The last bit of code has the extension being used. – Aretina

For further reading, please look at this article from MSDN about extension methods: msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb383977.aspx – Aretina

Answer 18

  private DataTable CreateDataTable(IList<T> item)
        {
            Type type = typeof(T);
            var properties = type.GetProperties();

            DataTable dataTable = new DataTable();
            foreach (PropertyInfo info in properties)
            {
                dataTable.Columns.Add(new DataColumn(info.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(info.PropertyType) ?? info.PropertyType));
            }

            foreach (T entity in item)
            {
                object[] values = new object[properties.Length];
                for (int i = 0; i < properties.Length; i++)
                {
                    values[i] = properties[i].GetValue(entity);
                }

                dataTable.Rows.Add(values);
            }
            return dataTable;
        }

Scourge

Answer 19

You can try something like below

public static DataTable GetDataTableFromObjects(object[] objects)
{
    if (objects != null && objects.Length > 0)
    {
        Type t = objects[0].GetType();
        DataTable dt = new DataTable(t.Name);
        foreach (PropertyInfo pi in t.GetProperties())
        {
            dt.Columns.Add(new DataColumn(pi.Name));
        }
        foreach (var o in objects)
        {
            DataRow dr = dt.NewRow();
            foreach (DataColumn dc in dt.Columns)
            {
                dr[dc.ColumnName] = o.GetType().GetProperty(dc.ColumnName).GetValue(o, null);
            }
            dt.Rows.Add(dr);
        }
        return dt;
    }
    return null;
}

Dinerman

Answer 20

If you are using VB.NET then this class does the job.

Imports System.Reflection
''' <summary>
''' Convert any List(Of T) to a DataTable with correct column types and converts Nullable Type values to DBNull
''' </summary>

Public Class ConvertListToDataset

    Public Function ListToDataset(Of T)(ByVal list As IList(Of T)) As DataTable

        Dim dt As New DataTable()
        '/* Create the DataTable columns */
        For Each pi As PropertyInfo In GetType(T).GetProperties()
            If pi.PropertyType.IsValueType Then
                Debug.Print(pi.Name)
            End If
            If IsNothing(Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(pi.PropertyType)) Then
                dt.Columns.Add(pi.Name, pi.PropertyType)
            Else
                dt.Columns.Add(pi.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(pi.PropertyType))
            End If
        Next

        '/* Populate the DataTable with the values in the Items in List */
        For Each item As T In list
            Dim dr As DataRow = dt.NewRow()
            For Each pi As PropertyInfo In GetType(T).GetProperties()
                dr(pi.Name) = IIf(IsNothing(pi.GetValue(item)), DBNull.Value, pi.GetValue(item))
            Next
            dt.Rows.Add(dr)
        Next
        Return dt

    End Function

End Class

Ranking

Answer 21

if you have properties in your class this line of code is OK !!

PropertyDescriptorCollection props =
            TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));

but if you have all public fields then use this:

public static DataTable ToDataTable<T>(  IList<T> data)
        {
        FieldInfo[] myFieldInfo;
        Type myType = typeof(T);
        // Get the type and fields of FieldInfoClass.
        myFieldInfo = myType.GetFields(BindingFlags.NonPublic | BindingFlags.Instance
            | BindingFlags.Public);

        DataTable dt = new DataTable();
        for (int i = 0; i < myFieldInfo.Length; i++)
            {
            FieldInfo property = myFieldInfo[i];
            dt.Columns.Add(property.Name, property.FieldType);
            }
        object[] values = new object[myFieldInfo.Length];
        foreach (T item in data)
            {
            for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
                {
                values[i] = myFieldInfo[i].GetValue(item);
                }
            dt.Rows.Add(values);
            }
        return dt;
        }

the original answer is from above , I just edited to use fields instead of properties

and to use it do this

 DataTable dt = new DataTable();
            dt = ToDataTable(myBriefs);
            gridData.DataSource = dt;
            gridData.DataBind();

Sling

Answer 22

To convert a generic list to data table, you could use the DataTableGenerator

This library lets you convert your list into a data table with multi-feature like

• Translate data table header
• specify some column to show

Christner

Answer 23

This is the simple Console Application to convert List to Datatable.

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Linq;
using System.Text;
using System.Data;
using System.ComponentModel;

namespace ConvertListToDataTable
{
    public static class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            List<MyObject> list = new List<MyObject>();
            for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
            {
                list.Add(new MyObject { Sno = i, Name = i.ToString() + "-KarthiK", Dat = DateTime.Now.AddSeconds(i) });
            }

            DataTable dt = ConvertListToDataTable(list);
            foreach (DataRow row in dt.Rows)
            {
                Console.WriteLine();
                for (int x = 0; x < dt.Columns.Count; x++)
                {
                    Console.Write(row[x].ToString() + " ");
                }
            }
            Console.ReadLine();
        }

        public class MyObject
        {
            public int Sno { get; set; }
            public string Name { get; set; }
            public DateTime Dat { get; set; }
        }

        public static DataTable ConvertListToDataTable<T>(this List<T> iList)
        {
            DataTable dataTable = new DataTable();
            PropertyDescriptorCollection props = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
            for (int i = 0; i < props.Count; i++)
            {
                PropertyDescriptor propertyDescriptor = props[i];
                Type type = propertyDescriptor.PropertyType;

                if (type.IsGenericType && type.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Nullable<>))
                    type = Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(type);

                dataTable.Columns.Add(propertyDescriptor.Name, type);
            }
            object[] values = new object[props.Count];
            foreach (T iListItem in iList)
            {
                for (int i = 0; i < values.Length; i++)
                {
                    values[i] = props[i].GetValue(iListItem);
                }
                dataTable.Rows.Add(values);
            }
            return dataTable;
        }
    }
}

Astera

Answer 24

 Dim counties As New List(Of County)
 Dim dtCounties As DataTable
 dtCounties = _combinedRefRepository.Get_Counties()
 If dtCounties.Rows.Count <> 0 Then
    For Each row As DataRow In dtCounties.Rows
      Dim county As New County
      county.CountyId = row.Item(0).ToString()
      county.CountyName = row.Item(1).ToString().ToUpper()
      counties.Add(county)
    Next
    dtCounties.Dispose()
 End If

Fortin

Answer 25

I think it's more convenient and easy to use.

   List<Whatever> _lobj= new List<Whatever>(); 
    var json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(_lobj);
                DataTable dt = (DataTable)JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(json, (typeof(DataTable)));

Illeetvilaine

Answer 26

If you want to use reflection and set columns order/ include only some columns/ Exclude some columns try this:

        private static DataTable ConvertToDataTable<T>(IList<T> data, string[] fieldsToInclude = null,
string[] fieldsToExclude = null)
    {
        PropertyDescriptorCollection properties = TypeDescriptor.GetProperties(typeof(T));
        DataTable table = new DataTable();
        foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
        {
            if ((fieldsToInclude != null && !fieldsToInclude.Contains(prop.Name)) ||
                (fieldsToExclude != null && fieldsToExclude.Contains(prop.Name)))
                continue;
            table.Columns.Add(prop.Name, Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(prop.PropertyType) ?? prop.PropertyType);
        }

        foreach (T item in data)
        {
            var atLeastOnePropertyExists = false;
            DataRow row = table.NewRow();
            foreach (PropertyDescriptor prop in properties)
            {

                if ((fieldsToInclude != null && !fieldsToInclude.Contains(prop.Name)) ||
(fieldsToExclude != null && fieldsToExclude.Contains(prop.Name)))
                    continue;

                row[prop.Name] = prop.GetValue(item) ?? DBNull.Value;
                atLeastOnePropertyExists = true;
            }

            if(atLeastOnePropertyExists) table.Rows.Add(row);
        }


        if (fieldsToInclude != null)
            SetColumnsOrder(table, fieldsToInclude);

        return table;

    }

    private static void SetColumnsOrder(DataTable table, params String[] columnNames)
    {
        int columnIndex = 0;
        foreach (var columnName in columnNames)
        {
            table.Columns[columnName].SetOrdinal(columnIndex);
            columnIndex++;
        }
    }

Nexus

Answer 27

List<object> Basket;

string json = JsonConvert.SerializeObject(Basket, Formatting.Indented);
DataTable dtUsingMethod = Business.GetJSONToDataTableUsingNewtonSoftDll(json);



public static DataTable GetJSONToDataTableUsingNewtonSoftDll(string JSONData)
{
    DataTable dt = (DataTable)JsonConvert.DeserializeObject(JSONData, (typeof(DataTable)));
    return dt;
}

Dovetailed

Can you provide further explaination of what doing your code and if it needs any dependencies (like NewtonSoft) ? – Catlee

Answer 28

Here is another one to the list. Cinchoo ETL - an open source library to convert enumerable to datatable.

List<Whatever> whatever = new List<Whatever>();
var dt = whatever.AsDataTable();

Disclaimer: I'm author of this library.

Ommiad

Answer 29

            List<Demo> list3 = new List<Demo>();

            list3.Add(new Demo() { Id = 1, Name = "", Price = 563 });
            list3.Add(new Demo() { Id = 2, Name = "Shahriar", Price = null });
            list3.Add(new Demo() { Id = 3, Name = "Sujon", Price = 443 });
            list3.Add(new Demo() { Id = 4, Name = "Kate", Price = null });

            DataTable dt = new DataTable();

            dt.Columns.Add("Id");
            dt.Columns.Add("Name");
            dt.Columns.Add("Price");

            foreach(var x in list3)
            {
                dt.Rows.Add(x.Id, x.Name, x.Price);
            }

Sardis