Javascript CSV Strings

Parse and Stringify for CSV strings.

• API similar to the JSON parser (CSV.parse and CSV.stringify).
• Can also work row by row.
• Can also be used to parse strings from readable streams (e.g. file streams).

Contributors

• Nicolas Thouvenin
• Stéphane Gully
• J. Baumbach
• Sam Hauglustaine
• Rick Huizinga
• doleksy1

Installation

With npm:

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$ npm install csv-string

Tests

Use mocha to run the tests.

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$ npm install mocha
$ mocha test

API Documentation

parse(input : String, [separator : String]) : Object

Converts a CSV string input to array output.

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    var CSV = require('csv-string'),
     arr = CSV.parse('a,b,c\na,b,c');

    console.log(arr);

Output:

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[ [ 'a', 'b', 'c' ], [ 'a', 'b', 'c' ] ]

If separator parameter is not provided, it is automatically detected.

stringify(input : Object, [separator : String]) : String

Converts object input to a CSV string.

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    var CSV = require('csv-string');

    console.log(CSV.stringify(['a', 'b', 'c']));
    console.log(CSV.stringify([['c', 'd', 'e'], ['c','d','e']]));
    console.log(CSV.stringify({a:'e', b:'f', c:'g'}));

Output:

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a,b,c

c,d,e
c,d,e

e,f,g

detect(input : String) : String

Detects the best separator.

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    var CSV = require('csv-string');

    console.log(CSV.detect('a,b,c'));
    console.log(CSV.detect('a;b;c'));
    console.log(CSV.detect('a|b|c'));
    console.log(CSV.detect('a\tb\tc'));

Output:

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,
;
|
\t

forEach(input : String, sep : String, callback : Function)

forEach(input : String, callback : Function)

callback(row : Array, index : Number) : undefined

Calls callback for each CSV row/line. The Array passed to callback contains the fields of the current row.

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    var CSV = require('csv-string');
    var data = 'a,b,c\nd,e,f';
    CSV.forEach(data, ',', function(row, index) {
        console.log('#' + index + ' : ', row);
    });

Output:

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#0 :  [ 'a', 'b', 'c' ]
#1 :  [ 'd', 'e', 'f' ]

read(input : String, sep : String, callback : Function) : Number

read(input : String, callback : Function) : Number

callback(row : Array) : undefined

Calls callback when a CSV row is read. The Array passed to callback contains the fields of the row.
Returns the first offset after the row.

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    var CSV = require('csv-string');
    var data = 'a,b,c\nd,e,f';
    var index = CSV.read(data, ',', function(row) {
        console.log(row);
    });
    console.log(data.slice(index));

Output:

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[ 'a', 'b', 'c' ]
d,e,f

readAll(input : String, sep : String, callback : Function) : Number

readAll(input : String, callback : Function) : Number

callback(rows : Array) : undefined

Calls callback when all CSV rows are read. The Array passed to callback contains the rows of the file.
Returns the offset of the end of parsing (generaly it's the end of the input string).

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    var CSV = require('csv-string');
    var data = 'a,b,c\nd,e,f';
    index = CSV.readAll(data, function(row) {
        console.log(row);
    });
    console.log('-' + data.slice(index) + '-');

Output:

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[ [ 'a', 'b', 'c' ], [ 'd', 'e', 'f' ] ]
--

readChunk(input : String, sep : String, callback : Function) : Number

readChunk(input : String, callback : Function) : Number

callback(rows : Array) : undefined

Calls callback when all CSV rows are read. The last row could be ignored, because the remainder could be in another chunk. The Array passed to callback contains the rows of the file. Returns the offset of the end of parsing. If the last row is ignored, the offset will point to the beginnning of the row.

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    var CSV = require('csv-string');
    var data = 'a,b,c\nd,e';
    index = CSV.readChunk(data, function(row) {
        console.log(row);
    });
    console.log('-' + data.slice(index) + '-');

Output:

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[ [ 'a', 'b', 'c' ] ]
--

createStream(options : Object) : WritableStream

createStream() : WritableStream

Create a writable stream for CSV chunk. Options are :

• separator : To indicate the CSV separator. By default is auto (see the detect function)

Example : Read CSV file from the standard input.

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    var stream = CSV.createStream();

    stream.on('data', function (row) {
         console.log(row);
      }
    )

    process.stdin.resume();
    process.stdin.setEncoding('utf8');
    process.stdin.pipe(stream);

Related projects

• https://npmjs.org/browse/keyword/csv
• http://www.uselesscode.org/javascript/csv/
• https://github.com/archan937/csonv.js

Benchmark

I made a very basic benchmark to compare this project to other related projects, using file streams as input. See ./bench for source code.

the test

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    time node ./SCRITPNAME.js >/dev/null

the result

License

MIT/X11