Example JavaScript code to parse CSV data

Question

Where could I find some JavaScript code to parse CSV data?

Answer 1

jQuery-CSV

It's a jQuery plugin designed to work as an end-to-end solution for parsing CSV into JavaScript data. It handles every single edge case presented in RFC 4180, as well as some that pop up for Excel/Google spreadsheet exports (i.e., mostly involving null values) that the specification is missing.

Example:

track,artist,album,year

Dangerous,'Busta Rhymes','When Disaster Strikes',1997

// Calling this
music = $.csv.toArrays(csv)

// Outputs...
[
  ["track", "artist", "album", "year"],
  ["Dangerous", "Busta Rhymes", "When Disaster Strikes", "1997"]
]

console.log(music[1][2]) // Outputs: 'When Disaster Strikes'

Update:

Oh yeah, I should also probably mention that it's completely configurable.

music = $.csv.toArrays(csv, {
  delimiter: "'", // Sets a custom value delimiter character
  separator: ';', // Sets a custom field separator character
});

Update 2:

It now works with jQuery on Node.js too. So you have the option of doing either client-side or server-side parsing with the same library.

Update 3:

Since the Google Code shutdown, jquery-csv has been migrated to GitHub.

Disclaimer: I am also the author of jQuery-CSV.