Using LINQ to find Excel columns that don't exist in array? - arrays

Question

I have a solution that works for what I want, but I'm hoping to get some slick LINQ types to help me improve what I have, and learn something new in the process.
The code below is used verify that certain column names exist on a spreadsheet. I was torn between using column index values or column names to find them. They both have good and bad points, but decided to go with column names. They'll always exist, and sometimes in different order, though I'm working on this.
Details:
GetData() method returns a DataTable from the Excel spreadsheet. I cycle through all the required field names from my array, looking to see if it matches with something in the column collection on the spreadsheet. If not, then I append the missing column name to an output parameter from the method. I need both the boolean value and the missing fields variable, and I wasn't sure of a better way than using the output parameter. I then remove the last comma from the appended string for the display on the UI. If the StringBuilder object isn't null (I could have used the missingFieldCounter too) then I know there's at least one missing field, bool will be false. Otherwise, I just return output param as empty, and method as true.
So, Is there a more slick, all-in-one way to check if fields are missing, and somehow report on them?
private bool ValidateFile(out string errorFields)
{
data = GetData();
List<string> requiredNames = new [] { "Site AB#", "Site#", "Site Name", "Address", "City", "St", "Zip" }.ToList();
StringBuilder missingFields = null;
var missingFieldCounter = 0;
foreach (var name in requiredNames)
{
var foundColumn = from DataColumn c in data.Columns
where c.ColumnName == name
select c;
if (!foundColumn.Any())
{
if (missingFields == null)
missingFields = new StringBuilder();
missingFieldCounter++;
missingFields.Append(name + ",");
}
}
if (missingFields != null)
{
errorFields = missingFields.ToString().Substring(0, (missingFields.ToString().Length - 1));
return false;
}
errorFields = string.Empty;
return true;
}

Answer 1

Here is the linq solution that makes the same.
I call the ToArray() function to activate the linq statement
(from col in requiredNames.Except(
from dataCol in data
select dataCol.ColumnName
)
select missingFields.Append(col + ", ")
).ToArray();
errorFields = missingFields.ToString();
Console.WriteLine(errorFields);