Parsing tab delimited file detect if first row value it empty/tab - c#-3.0

Question

Hi all I have a to parse some files to load into a DataSet and I ran into an issue where the first row value is sometimes blank so when I parse the data the rows added to the columns are off because there is no value for the row[RouteCode].
Example Data
Columns are in the first line(Tab delimited) DataRows are in the following rows(Tab delimited)
RouteCode City EmailAddress FirstName
NULL MyCity My-Email MyFirstName
What I am seeing is all the Columns are added fine but each row added the first tab value is not detected so it shifts the columns(hope I am making sense) so in this case the city data is sitting in the RouteCode column and the last column somehow is getting the first row value (tab).
class TextToDataSet
{
public TextToDataSet()
{ }
/// <summary>
/// Converts a given delimited file into a dataset.
/// Assumes that the first line
/// of the text file contains the column names.
/// </summary>
/// <param name="File">The name of the file to open</param>
/// <param name="TableName">The name of the
/// Table to be made within the DataSet returned</param>
/// <param name="delimiter">The string to delimit by</param>
/// <returns></returns>
public static DataSet Convert(string File,
string TableName, string delimiter)
{
//The DataSet to Return
DataSet result = new DataSet();
//Open the file in a stream reader.
using (StreamReader s = new StreamReader(File))
{
//Split the first line into the columns
string[] columns = s.ReadLine().Split(delimiter.ToCharArray());
//Add the new DataTable to the RecordSet
result.Tables.Add(TableName);
//Cycle the colums, adding those that don't exist yet
//and sequencing the one that do.
foreach (string col in columns)
{
bool added = false;
string next = "";
int i = 0;
while (!added)
{
//Build the column name and remove any unwanted characters.
string columnname = col + next;
columnname = columnname.Replace("#", "");
columnname = columnname.Replace("'", "");
columnname = columnname.Replace("&", "");
//See if the column already exists
if (!result.Tables[TableName].Columns.Contains(columnname))
{
//if it doesn't then we add it here and mark it as added
result.Tables[TableName].Columns.Add(columnname);
added = true;
}
else
{
//if it did exist then we increment the sequencer and try again.
i++;
next = "_" + i;
}
}
}
//Read the rest of the data in the file.
string AllData = s.ReadToEnd();
//Split off each row at the Carriage Return/Line Feed
//Default line ending in most windows exports.
//You may have to edit this to match your particular file.
//This will work for Excel, Access, etc. default exports.
string[] rows = AllData.Split("\n".ToCharArray());
//Now add each row to the DataSet
foreach (string r in rows)
{
//Split the row at the delimiter.
string[] items = r.Split(delimiter.ToCharArray());
//Add the item
result.Tables[TableName].Rows.Add(items);
}
}
//Return the imported data.
return result;
}
}
}

Answer 1

If there aren't supposed to be any missing entries anywhere in the file (i.e there should always be something between the tabs) then you could use:
string[] columns = s.ReadLine().Split(delimiter.ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
and then check that columns is not an empty array. If it is then read the next line and carry on processing:
while (columns.Length == 0)
{
// Row is empty so read the next line out of the file
columns = s.ReadLine().Split(delimiter.ToCharArray(), StringSplitOptions.RemoveEmptyEntries);
}
This will ensure that your data always starts with a filled row. However, it will break down if there is ever an empty entry further down the list.
If there could be empty entries then you'll probably have to check for all columns being empty:
while (columns.All(c => string.IsNullOrEmpty(c)))
{
// Row is empty so read the next line out of the file
columns = s.ReadLine().Split(delimiter.ToCharArray());
}