Parse and Generate Custom Flat Files Last updated: 2026-01-23

ediFabric .NET C# Examples

The example below is part of the ediFabric .NET C# Code Examples.

The Parse Custom Flat File code is also available on GitHub

Additional operations for Flat Files

How to parse custom Flat File with ediFabric .NET

using EdiFabric.Framework.Readers;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Text;
using EdiFabric.Core.Model.Edi;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using EdiFabric.Framework;

namespace EdiFabric.Examples.FlatFile.Read
{
    class ReadCSVFile
    {
        public static void Run()
        {
            Debug.WriteLine("******************************");
            Debug.WriteLine(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().Name);
            Debug.WriteLine("******************************");

            Stream ediStream = File.OpenRead(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory() + @"\..\..\..\Files\Flat_PO.txt");
            List<IEdiItem> items = new List<IEdiItem>();

            using (StreamReader streamReader = new StreamReader(ediStream, Encoding.UTF8, true, 1024))
            {
                using (var flatReader = new FlatReader(streamReader, FlatFactory))
                {
                    while (flatReader.Read())
                    {
                        items.Add(flatReader.Item);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

        private static MessageContext FlatFactory(string segment)
        {
            var id = segment.Substring(0, 2);
            switch (id)
            {
                case "PO":
                    return new MessageContext("PO", "Flat", mc => Assembly.Load(new AssemblyName("EdiFabric.Examples.FlatFile.Common")));
                case "H,":
                    return new MessageContext("Markers", "Flat", mc => Assembly.Load(new AssemblyName("EdiFabric.Examples.FlatFile.Common")));
            }

            return null;
        }
    }
}

How to generate custom Flat File with ediFabric .NET

using EdiFabric.Examples.FlatFile.Common;
using EdiFabric.Framework.Writers;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.IO;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Text;

namespace EdiFabric.Examples.FlatFile.Write
{
    class WriteCSVFile
    {
        public static void Run()
        {
            Debug.WriteLine("******************************");
            Debug.WriteLine(MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().Name);
            Debug.WriteLine("******************************");

            using (var stream = new MemoryStream())
            {
                using (var writer = new StreamWriter(stream, Encoding.UTF8, 4096, true))
                {
                    using (var flatWriter = new FlatWriter(writer, null))
                    {
                        var flatPO = POBuilder.BuildFlatPO();
                        flatWriter.Write(flatPO);
                    }

                    Debug.Write(stream.LoadToString());
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

using System.Collections.Generic;

namespace EdiFabric.Examples.FlatFile.Common
{
    public class POBuilder
    {
        public static FlatPO BuildFlatPO()
        {
            var result = new FlatPO();

            //  Header
            result.Header = new Header();
            result.Header.Tag = "PO";
            result.Header.Date = "2019-12-17";

            //  Customers
            result.Customers = new List<Customer>();

            //  Customer 1
            var customer1 = new Customer();
            customer1.FullName = "David Pastrnak";
            customer1.Street = "100 Legends Way";
            customer1.City = "Boston";
            customer1.PostCode = "02114";
            customer1.State = "MA";
            customer1.Country = "US";
            result.Customers.Add(customer1);

            //  Customer 2
            var customer2 = new Customer();
            customer2.FullName = "Nathan MacKinnon";
            customer2.Street = "1000 Chopper Cir";
            customer2.City = "Denver";
            customer2.PostCode = "80204";
            customer2.State = "CO";
            customer2.Country = "US";
            result.Customers.Add(customer2);

            //  Items
            result.Items = new Items();
            result.Items.Tag = "ITEMS";
            result.Items.ItemDetails = new List<ItemDetail>();

            //  Item 1
            var item1 = new ItemDetail();
            item1.Description = "Bauer Nexus 2N Pro";
            item1.ProductCode = "ITEM213-CC";
            item1.Quantity = "1";
            item1.UnitPrice = "168.95";
            item1.Notes = "Hockey stick";
            result.Items.ItemDetails.Add(item1);

            //  Item 2
            var item2 = new ItemDetail();
            item2.Description = "CCM RibCor 70K";
            item2.ProductCode = "ITEM323-CC";
            item2.Quantity = "1";
            item2.UnitPrice = "500.98";
            item2.Notes = "Hockey skates";
            result.Items.ItemDetails.Add(item2);

            return result;
        }
    }
}

Flat Files

ediFabric .NET can parse and generate flat files of any structure, e.g. positional, delimited, hierarchical, or a mixture of them. The structure of flat files is represented by EDI templates.

Custom Flat File Code Example

Flat-file code example is available at:

ediFabric .NET flat file parse & generate C# example

Custom Flat File Template

ediFabric .NET uses C# classes to represent the layout of EDI transactions. These classes are nothing more than standard C# .NET classes with some extra markup and are referred to as EDI templates.

Template for Custom Flat File

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using EdiFabric.Core.Annotations.Edi;
using EdiFabric.Core.Annotations.Validation;
using EdiFabric.Core.Model.Edi;

namespace EdiFabric.Templates.Vda
{
    [Serializable()]
    [Message("Flat", "PO")]
    public class FlatPO : EdiMessage
    {
        [Required]
        [Pos(1)]
        public Header Header { get; set; }

        [Splitter]
        [Required]
        [Pos(2)]
        public List<Customer> Customers { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [Pos(3)]
        public Items Items { get; set; }
    }

    [Serializable()]
    [Segment("PO")]
    public class Header
    {
        [Required]
        [StringLength(2, 2)]
        [Pos(1)]
        public string Tag { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [StringLength(10, 10)]
        [Pos(2)]
        public string Date { get; set; }
    }

    [Serializable()]
    [Segment("")]
    public class Customer
    {
        [Required]
        [StringLength(10, 10, false, ' ')]
        [Pos(1)]
        public string Country { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [StringLength(20, 20)]
        [Pos(2)]
        public string FullName { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [StringLength(20, 20)]
        [Pos(3)]
        public string Street { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [StringLength(15, 15)]
        [Pos(4)]
        public string City { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [StringLength(3, 3, false, ' ')]
        [Pos(5)]
        public string State { get; set; }

        [Required]
        [StringLength(5, 5, false, ' ')]
        [Pos(6)]
        public string PostCode { get; set; }
    }

    [Serializable()]
    [Segment("ITEMS", ',', '|')]
    public class Items
    {

        [Pos(1)]
        public string Tag { get; set; }

        [Pos(2)]
        public List<ItemDetail> ItemDetails { get; set; }
    }

    [Serializable()]
    [Composite("ItemDetails")]
    public class ItemDetail
    {
        [Pos(1)]
        public string ProductCode { get; set; }

        [Pos(2)]
        public string Description { get; set; }

        [Pos(3)]
        public string Quantity { get; set; }

        [Pos(4)]
        public string UnitPrice { get; set; }

        [Pos(5)]
        public string Notes { get; set; }
    }
}

Parse your first Flat file in five minutes

The Community plan is free forever and needs no credit card. It includes ediFabric .NET, Native and Cloud with one serial key.