Problems with converting FixedLength format to to csv using same class definition - filehelpers

Question

I defined both FixedLength and Delimited attributes on a single class. It reads the fixed length file fine but fails when i try to write out a csv.
[FixedLengthRecord]
[DelimitedRecord(",")]
public class PCFFileHeader
{
[FieldFixedLength(2)] public string RecordType { get; set; }
[FieldFixedLength(25)] public string FileDescription { get; set; }
}
var engine = new MultiRecordEngine(typeof(PCFFileHeader), typeof(SecondHeader));
engine.RecordSelector = RecordSelector;
var output = engine.ReadFile(filePath);
// code to extract PCFHeader from output and create a list
var headerEngine = new DelimitedFileEngine<PCFFileHeader>();
headerEngine.WriteFile("header_" + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddhhmmss"), pcfFileHeaderList);

Answer 1

You can't add both [FixedLengthRecord] and [DelimitedRecord] to the same class. FileHelpers will just treat it as [FixedLengthRecord]. With your current class, it will error if you do:
// This causes an exception because the class is not a delimited record definition
var delimitedHeaderEngine = new DelimitedFileEngine<PCFFileHeader>();
Instead, you should have two PCFFileHeader definitions, FixedPCFFileHeader and DelimitedPCFFileHeader.
[FixedLengthRecord]
public class FixedPCFFileHeader
{
[FieldFixedLength(2)] public string RecordType { get; set; }
[FieldFixedLength(25)] public string FileDescription { get; set; }
}
[DelimitedRecord(",")]
public class DelimitedPCFFileHeader
{
public string RecordType { get; set; }
public string FileDescription { get; set; }
}
class Program
{
static void Main(string[] args)
{
var fixedHeaderEngine = new FileHelperEngine<FixedPCFFileHeader>();
var recordsFixed = fixedHeaderEngine.ReadString("AADescription ");
Debug.Assert(recordsFixed.Count() == 1);
Debug.Assert(recordsFixed[0].RecordType == "AA");
Debug.Assert(recordsFixed[0].FileDescription == "Description ");
var delimitedHeaderEngine = new FileHelperEngine<DelimitedPCFFileHeader>();
var recordsDelimited = delimitedHeaderEngine.ReadString("AA,Description");
Debug.Assert(recordsDelimited.Count() == 1);
Debug.Assert(recordsDelimited[0].RecordType == "AA");
Debug.Assert(recordsDelimited[0].FileDescription == "Description");
var pcfFileHeaderList = new FixedPCFFileHeader[] { new FixedPCFFileHeader() { RecordType = "AA", FileDescription = "Description" } };
// If you want to output a header when exporting uncomment the following
//headerEngine.HeaderText = "header_" + DateTime.Now.ToString("yyyyMMddhhmmss");
var output = fixedHeaderEngine.WriteString(pcfFileHeaderList);
Debug.Assert(output == "AADescription \r\n");
Console.WriteLine("All OK");
Console.ReadLine();
}
}
If you want to automatically detect the correct format during import, you can use the FileHelpers Smart Format Detector.