Parsing a CSV file using NodeJS

Question

With nodejs I want to parse a .csv file of 10000 records and do some operation on each row. I tried using http://www.adaltas.com/projects/node-csv. I couldnt get this to pau

Answer 1

You can convert csv to json format using csv-to-json module and then you can easily use json file in your program

Answer 2

npm install csv

Sample CSV file You're going to need a CSV file to parse, so either you have one already, or you can copy the text below and paste it into a new file and call that file "mycsv.csv"

ABC, 123, Fudge
532, CWE, ICECREAM
8023, POOP, DOGS
441, CHEESE, CARMEL
221, ABC, HOUSE
1
ABC, 123, Fudge
2
532, CWE, ICECREAM
3
8023, POOP, DOGS
4
441, CHEESE, CARMEL
5
221, ABC, HOUSE

Sample Code Reading and Parsing the CSV file

Create a new file, and insert the following code into it. Make sure to read through what is going on behind the scenes.

    var csv = require('csv'); 
    // loads the csv module referenced above.

    var obj = csv(); 
    // gets the csv module to access the required functionality

    function MyCSV(Fone, Ftwo, Fthree) {
        this.FieldOne = Fone;
        this.FieldTwo = Ftwo;
        this.FieldThree = Fthree;
    }; 
    // Define the MyCSV object with parameterized constructor, this will be used for storing the data read from the csv into an array of MyCSV. You will need to define each field as shown above.

    var MyData = []; 
    // MyData array will contain the data from the CSV file and it will be sent to the clients request over HTTP. 

    obj.from.path('../THEPATHINYOURPROJECT/TOTHE/csv_FILE_YOU_WANT_TO_LOAD.csv').to.array(function (data) {
        for (var index = 0; index < data.length; index++) {
            MyData.push(new MyCSV(data[index][0], data[index][1], data[index][2]));
        }
        console.log(MyData);
    });
    //Reads the CSV file from the path you specify, and the data is stored in the array we specified using callback function.  This function iterates through an array and each line from the CSV file will be pushed as a record to another array called MyData , and logs the data into the console to ensure it worked.

var http = require('http');
//Load the http module.

var server = http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
    resp.writeHead(200, { 'content-type': 'application/json' });
    resp.end(JSON.stringify(MyData));
});
// Create a webserver with a request listener callback.  This will write the response header with the content type as json, and end the response by sending the MyData array in JSON format.

server.listen(8080);
// Tells the webserver to listen on port 8080(obviously this may be whatever port you want.)
1
var csv = require('csv'); 
2
// loads the csv module referenced above.
3
​
4
var obj = csv(); 
5
// gets the csv module to access the required functionality
6
​
7
function MyCSV(Fone, Ftwo, Fthree) {
8
    this.FieldOne = Fone;
9
    this.FieldTwo = Ftwo;
10
    this.FieldThree = Fthree;
11
}; 
12
// Define the MyCSV object with parameterized constructor, this will be used for storing the data read from the csv into an array of MyCSV. You will need to define each field as shown above.
13
​
14
var MyData = []; 
15
// MyData array will contain the data from the CSV file and it will be sent to the clients request over HTTP. 
16
​
17
obj.from.path('../THEPATHINYOURPROJECT/TOTHE/csv_FILE_YOU_WANT_TO_LOAD.csv').to.array(function (data) {
18
    for (var index = 0; index < data.length; index++) {
19
        MyData.push(new MyCSV(data[index][0], data[index][1], data[index][2]));
20
    }
21
    console.log(MyData);
22
});
23
//Reads the CSV file from the path you specify, and the data is stored in the array we specified using callback function.  This function iterates through an array and each line from the CSV file will be pushed as a record to another array called MyData , and logs the data into the console to ensure it worked.
24
​
25
var http = require('http');
26
//Load the http module.
27
​
28
var server = http.createServer(function (req, resp) {
29
    resp.writeHead(200, { 'content-type': 'application/json' });
30
    resp.end(JSON.stringify(MyData));
31
});
32
// Create a webserver with a request listener callback.  This will write the response header with the content type as json, and end the response by sending the MyData array in JSON format.
33
​
34
server.listen(8080);
35
// Tells the webserver to listen on port 8080(obviously this may be whatever port you want.)
Things to be aware of in your app.js code
In lines 7 through 11, we define the function called 'MyCSV' and the field names.

If your CSV file has multiple columns make sure you define this correctly to match your file.

On line 17 we define the location of the CSV file of which we are loading.  Make sure you use the correct path here.

Start your App and Verify Functionality Open a console and type the following Command:

Node app 1 Node app You should see the following output in your console:

[  MYCSV { Fieldone: 'ABC', Fieldtwo: '123', Fieldthree: 'Fudge' },
   MYCSV { Fieldone: '532', Fieldtwo: 'CWE', Fieldthree: 'ICECREAM' },
   MYCSV { Fieldone: '8023', Fieldtwo: 'POOP', Fieldthree: 'DOGS' },
   MYCSV { Fieldone: '441', Fieldtwo: 'CHEESE', Fieldthree: 'CARMEL' },
   MYCSV { Fieldone: '221', Fieldtwo: 'ABC', Fieldthree: 'HOUSE' }, ]

1 [ MYCSV { Fieldone: 'ABC', Fieldtwo: '123', Fieldthree: 'Fudge' }, 2 MYCSV { Fieldone: '532', Fieldtwo: 'CWE', Fieldthree: 'ICECREAM' }, 3 MYCSV { Fieldone: '8023', Fieldtwo: 'POOP', Fieldthree: 'DOGS' }, 4 MYCSV { Fieldone: '441', Fieldtwo: 'CHEESE', Fieldthree: 'CARMEL' }, 5 MYCSV { Fieldone: '221', Fieldtwo: 'ABC', Fieldthree: 'HOUSE' }, ] Now you should open a web-browser and navigate to your server. You should see it output the data in JSON format.

Conclusion Using node.js and it's CSV module we can quickly and easily read and use data stored on the server and make it available to the client upon request

Answer 3

I needed an async csv reader and originally tried @Pransh Tiwari's answer but couldn't get it working with await and util.promisify(). Eventually I came across node-csvtojson, which pretty much does the same as csv-parser, but with promises. Here is an example usage of csvtojson in action:

const csvToJson = require('csvtojson');

const processRecipients = async () => {
    const recipients = await csvToJson({
        trim:true
    }).fromFile('./recipients.csv');

    // Code executes after recipients are fully loaded.
    recipients.forEach((recipient) => {
        console.log(recipient.name, recipient.email);
    });
};

Answer 4

I was using csv-parse but for larger files was running into performance issues one of the better libraries I have found is Papa Parse, docs are good, good support, lightweight, no dependencies.

Install papaparse

npm install papaparse

Usage:

• async / await

const fs = require('fs');
const Papa = require('papaparse');

const csvFilePath = 'data/test.csv'

// Function to read csv which returns a promise so you can do async / await.

const readCSV = async (filePath) => {
  const csvFile = fs.readFileSync(filePath)
  const csvData = csvFile.toString()  
  return new Promise(resolve => {
    Papa.parse(csvData, {
      header: true,
      transformHeader: header => header.trim(),
      complete: results => {
        console.log('Complete', results.data.length, 'records.'); 
        resolve(results.data);
      }
    });
  });
};

const test = async () => {
  let parsedData = await readCSV(csvFilePath); 
}

test()

• callback

const fs = require('fs');
const Papa = require('papaparse');

const csvFilePath = 'data/test.csv'

const file = fs.createReadStream(csvFilePath);

var csvData=[];
Papa.parse(file, {
  header: true,
  transformHeader: header => header.trim(),
  step: function(result) {
    csvData.push(result.data)
  },
  complete: function(results, file) {
    console.log('Complete', csvData.length, 'records.'); 
  }
});

---

Note header: true is an option on the config, see docs for other options

Answer 5

The fast-csv npm module can read data line-by-line from csv file.

Here is an example:

let csv= require('fast-csv');

var stream = fs.createReadStream("my.csv");

csv
 .parseStream(stream, {headers : true})
 .on("data", function(data){
     console.log('I am one line of data', data);
 })
 .on("end", function(){
     console.log("done");
 });

Answer 6

I use this simple one: https://www.npmjs.com/package/csv-parser

Very simple to use:

const csv = require('csv-parser')
const fs = require('fs')
const results = [];

fs.createReadStream('./CSVs/Update 20191103C.csv')
  .pipe(csv())
  .on('data', (data) => results.push(data))
  .on('end', () => {
    console.log(results);
    console.log(results[0]['Lowest Selling Price'])
  });