A specialized layout that renders CSV-formatted events.

Platforms Supported: All

<targets>
  <target>
    <layout xsi:type="CsvLayout">
      <!-- CSV Columns -->
      <column layout="Layout" name="String"/> <!-- repeated -->

      <!-- CSV Options -->
      <quoting>Enum</quoting>
      <quoteChar>String</quoteChar>
      <withHeader>Boolean</withHeader>
      <customColumnDelimiter>String</customColumnDelimiter>
      <delimiter>Enum</delimiter>
    </layout>
  </target>
</targets>

Array-collection where each item is represented by <column /> element with the following attributes:

• name - Name of the column (Becomes part of the Header for the CSV-output)
• layout - Layout for the column value. Layout Required.
• quoting - Column specific override of the default column quoting (Ex. for column with multiline exception-output)

  Introduced with NLog 4.6

• quoting - Default Quoting mode for columns to ensure valid CSV output. Default: Auto
  Possible values:

  • Auto - Only add quotes when detecting value contains the quote symbol, the separator or newlines (Slow)
  • All - Add quotes for all values. Useful for data known to be multiline such as Exception-ToString (Fast)
  • Nothing - Quote nothing, but make sure not to include newlines or quote-delimiter in output (Very Fast)

• quoteChar - Quote Character. Default: "

• withHeader - Indicates whether CSV should include header. Boolean. Default true

• customColumnDelimiter - Custom column delimiter value (valid when delimiter is set to Custom).

• delimiter - Column delimiter. Default: Auto
  Possible values:

  • Auto - Automatically detect from regional settings.
  • Comma - Comma , character (ASCII 44).
  • Custom - Custom string, specified by the CustomColumnDelimiter.
  • Pipe - Pipe | character (ASCII 124).
  • Semicolon - Semicolon ; character (ASCII 59).
  • Space - Space character (ASCII 32).
  • Tab - Tab character (ASCII 9).

<target xsi:type="File" name="csvFileExample" fileName="./CsvLogExample.csv">
    <layout xsi:type="CsvLayout" delimiter="Tab" withHeader="false">
        <column name="time" layout="${longdate}" />
        <column name="level" layout="${level:upperCase=true}"/>
        <column name="message" layout="${message}" />
        <column name="exception" layout="${exception:format=ToString}"/>
        <column name="property1" layout="${event-properties:property1}"/>
    </layout>
</target>

NLog 4.6 introduces the ability to override quoting from automatic to the faster Nothing or All. This will skip the overhead of the automatic quoting logic for individual columns.

This example shows how to override quoting for individual columns for better performance:

    <layout xsi:type="CsvLayout" delimiter="Tab" withHeader="false">
        <column name="time" layout="${longdate}" quoting="Nothing" />
        <column name="level" layout="${level:upperCase=true}" quoting="Nothing"/>
        <column name="message" layout="${message}" quoting="All" />
        <column name="exception" layout="${exception:format=ToString}" quoting="All"/>
        <column name="property1" layout="${event-properties:property1}"/>
    </layout>

Layout = new CsvLayout()
{
   Columns =
   {
      new CsvColumn("time", "${longdate}"),
      new CsvColumn("level", "${level:upperCase=true}"),
      new CsvColumn("message", "${message}"),
      new CsvColumn("exception", "${exception:format=ToString}"),
      new CsvColumn("property1", "${event-properties:property1}"),
   }
}