Creating A Comma Delimited String
A little while back I needed to create a comma-delimited string to parse into my SQL Query. My first attempt in creating my comma-delimited string involved using a StringBuilder class and appending a comma at the end of each of my values via a loop. However, I found that my application would error when parsing my comma-delimited string into my SQL query due to the fact a comma was added to the end of my string.
After some research on the MSDN website to solve my problem I found a solution and it was simpler than I thought. The .NET Framework already has a class called CommaDelimitedStringCollection and it is pretty simple to use as the following example shows:
using System.Configuration;
public partial class CommaPage : System.Web.UI.Page
{
protected void Page_Load(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
//Create a collection to parse to CommaDelimitedStringCollection class
List<string> cars = new List<string>();
cars.Add("Volvo");
cars.Add("VW");
cars.Add("BMW");
cars.Add("Ford");
//Create instance of CommaDelimitedStringCollection
CommaDelimitedStringCollection commaCollection
= new CommaDelimitedStringCollection() ;
//Iterate through cars collection and add to commaCollection
foreach (string item in cars)
{
commaCollection.Add(item);
}
//Read out list of values
Response.Write(commaCollection.ToString());
}
}
The output of the example above would be: "Volvo, VW, BMW, Ford".
So pretty much the .NET Framework's CommaDelimitedStringCollection class did all the work for me.
Nice one!