Recently, I had an requirement to save DataTable to multi-dimension string array.I googled but could not find everything in one place, so this post is the result of it.
Here is some data we will use for this example
| ID | Name |
| 1 | aaa |
| 2 | bbb |
| 3 | ccc |
| 4 | ddd |
| 5 | eee |
Below is the function we will use to convert DataTable to string[,] array
public string[,] ConvertDataTableToArray(DataTable dt)
{
//Declare 2D-String array
string[,] arrString =
new string[dt.Rows.Count + 1, dt.Columns.Count];
int index = 0;
//Save ColumnName in 1st row of the array
foreach (DataColumn dc in dt.Columns)
{
arrString[0, index] =
Convert.ToString(dc.ColumnName);
index++;
}
//Reset Index
index = 0;
//Now save DataTable values in array,
//here we start from second row as ColumnNames are stored in first row
for (int row = 1; row < dt.Rows.Count + 1; row++)
{
for (int col = 0; col < dt.Columns.Count; col++)
{
arrString[row, col] =
Convert.ToString(dt.Rows[row – 1][col]);
}
}
//Return 2D-String Array
return arrString;
}
So now we have 2D-String Array converted from DataTable, but how to read values from this array, I leave it on readers to find out.
Hint:
To find total row and total columns in Multidimension Array we have to use .GetLength() method
NJoy!!!
Comments good as well as bad are most welcome.
Vishal Astik 