Categories: Dotnet/.NET - C#Programming

Convert List<T>/IEnumerable to DataTable/DataView

Greetings visitor from the year 2025! You can get the source code for this from my Github repo here. Thanks for visiting.

Here’s a method to convert a generic List<T> to a DataTable. This can be used with ObjectDataSource so you get automatic sorting, etc.

using statement: using System.Reflection;
...

/// <summary>
/// Convert a List{T} to a DataTable.
/// </summary>
public DataTable ToDataTable<T>(List<T> items)
{
    var tb = new DataTable(typeof (T).Name);

    PropertyInfo[] props = typeof (T).GetProperties(BindingFlags.Public | BindingFlags.Instance);

    foreach (PropertyInfo prop in props)
    {
        Type t = GetCoreType(prop.PropertyType);
        tb.Columns.Add(prop.Name, t);
    }

    foreach (T item in items)
    {
        var values = new object[props.Length];

        for (int i = 0; i < props.Length; i++)
        {
            values[i] = props[i].GetValue(item, null);
        }

        tb.Rows.Add(values);
    }

    return tb;
}

/// <summary>
/// Determine of specified type is nullable
/// </summary>
public static bool IsNullable(Type t)
{
    return !t.IsValueType || (t.IsGenericType && t.GetGenericTypeDefinition() == typeof(Nullable<>));
}

/// <summary>
/// Return underlying type if type is Nullable otherwise return the type
/// </summary>
public static Type GetCoreType(Type t)
{
    if (t != null && IsNullable(t))
    {
        if (!t.IsValueType)
        {
            return t;
        }
        else
        {
            return Nullable.GetUnderlyingType(t);
        }
    }
    else
    {
        return t;
    }
}

Chinh Do

I occasionally blog about programming (.NET, Node.js, Java, PowerShell, React, Angular, JavaScript, etc), gadgets, etc. Follow me on Twitter for tips on those same topics. You can also find me on GitHub. See About for more info.

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View Comments

Joe says:

July 3, 2009 at 6:52 am

Very cool tip.. just used that to bind my grid to custom business object.
was searching everywhere for a way to do this that supports sorting
:)
Johannes Rudolph says:

August 7, 2009 at 2:29 am

I've written a small library myself to accomplish this task. It uses reflection only for the first time an object type is to be translated to a datatable. It emits a method that will do all the work translating an object type.

Its blazing fast. You can find it here: http://code.google.com/p/modelshredder/
Mal says:

November 10, 2009 at 5:47 pm

I know Jeff Atwood may agree, but dude, using 'var' for all your declarations is annoying.

Use it where appropriate, not as a vb/keyboard laziness.

Otherwise, very nice.
Coder says:

December 2, 2009 at 5:09 pm

must include using statement: using System.Reflection;

Also, I am getting an error when trying to implement:

DataTable myTable = new DataTable("CurrentTable");
myTable = ToDataTable(svc);

It is: The type arguments for the method cannot be inferred. Not really sure what that means. Can you post an actual implementation using the method?
Chinh Do says:

December 2, 2009 at 5:32 pm

Hi Coder

You need to specify the type of the list items in the call. Example:

var persons = new List<Person>();
DataTable myTable = ToDataTable<Person>(persons);

Mal:

I agree w/ you... var shouldn't be used indiscriminately. I just learned about it when I wrote this article though... so I had to use it everywhere :-)

Chinh
Pepcoder says:

December 11, 2009 at 11:25 am

I have a method as follows.
List GetServicesForLayoutFields()

can somebody suggest how can call the method ToDataTable(List items) to convert my above list to a datatable..
Please suggest
vsrkrishnaraju says:

December 16, 2009 at 1:26 am

it is very nice useful code for the developers

thanks and regards
v.s.r.k.raju
Marko says:

January 22, 2010 at 8:36 am

I need this code badly but when I use it in my code I get the following error:

DataSet does not support System.Nullable

and it is generated on the following line:

table.Columns.Add(property.Name, property.PropertyType);

My code is identical to yours and I use your method in my BLL method such as:

[DataObjectMethod(DataObjectMethodType.Select, true)]
public DataTable GetList(string sortExpression, int maximumRows, int startRowIndex)
{
var records = _dc.Products.OrderBy(p => p.ProductName).ToList();
return ToDataTable(records);
}

If you have any suggestions please help... :)
Chinh Do says:

January 22, 2010 at 8:50 am

Hi Marko:

I've fixed the code in the article to support nullable types. As the error message suggests, DataSets do not support nullable types. So the fix I put in is to use the non-nullable counterpart when I encounter nullable types.

Chinh
Venkata Koppaka says:

June 24, 2010 at 10:22 am

Very Useful dealing with custom business objects
- Chinh Do says:
  
  June 24, 2010 at 10:39 pm
  
  Hi Venkata: Appreciate your note. Glad this was helpful.