Converting Collection to Dataset

In this post you will learn how to convert a List of objects to a DataSet.

Introduction
 
I saw there is always a need to convert a list to a dataset and then bind it to a datagrid. To make it reusable I used the C# extension method feature.
 
Solution
 
We first check to make sure a list is provided or we throw an ArgumentNullException (in the overloaded constructor we also check for the name parameter). Here’s how the two constructors look:

public static DataSet ConvertToDataSet<T>(this IEnumerable<T> source, string name)
{
     if (source == null)
     throw new ArgumentNullException("source ");
     if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(name))
     throw new ArgumentNullException("name");
     var converted = new DataSet(name);
     converted.Tables.Add(NewTable(name, source));
     return converted;
}

Where Name= Name of the DataTable to be added to the DataSet.
 
 Let’s have a look of the NewTable method:

private static DataTable NewTable<T>(string name, IEnumerable<T> list)
{
     PropertyInfo[] propInfo = typeof(T).GetProperties();
     DataTable table = Table<T>(name, list, propInfo);
     IEnumerator<T> enumerator = list.GetEnumerator();
     while (enumerator.MoveNext())
     table.Rows.Add(CreateRow<T>(table.NewRow(), enumerator.Current, propInfo));
     return table;
}

Here’s how CreateRow looks like: 

private static DataRow CreateRow<T>(DataRow row, T listItem, PropertyInfo[] pi)
{
     foreach (PropertyInfo p in pi)
     row[p.Name.ToString()] = p.GetValue(listItem, null);
     return row;
}

and the Table<T> method used in NewTable method: 

private static DataTable Table<T>(string name, IEnumerable<T> list, PropertyInfo[] pi)
{
     DataTable table = new DataTable(name);
     foreach (PropertyInfo p in pi)
     table.Columns.Add(p.Name, p.PropertyType);
     return table;
}

Use
 
So now lets take a look at using this to convert a Generic list into a DataSet. In this example we will create a simple Generic list which will contain only 2 items, we will then use the Extension we created to convert the list into a DataSet:

var list = new List<Person>();
list.Add(new Person { ID = 1, Name = "Arunava" });
list.Add(new Person { ID = 2, Name = "Bubu" });
DataSet converted = list.ConvertToDataSet("TestTable");

Hope this helps.