How to read data From *.CSV file using javascript?

Question

My csv data looks like this:

heading1,heading2,heading3,heading4,heading5,value1_1,value2_1,value3_1,value4_1,value5_1,value1_2,value2_2,value3_2,val

Answer 1

Here's a JavaScript function that parses CSV data, accounting for commas found inside quotes.

// Parse a CSV row, accounting for commas inside quotes                   
function parse(row){
  var insideQuote = false,                                             
      entries = [],                                                    
      entry = [];
  row.split('').forEach(function (character) {                         
    if(character === '"') {
      insideQuote = !insideQuote;                                      
    } else {
      if(character == "," && !insideQuote) {                           
        entries.push(entry.join(''));                                  
        entry = [];                                                    
      } else {
        entry.push(character);                                         
      }                                                                
    }                                                                  
  });
  entries.push(entry.join(''));                                        
  return entries;                                                      
}

Example use of the function to parse a CSV file that looks like this:

"foo, the column",bar
2,3
"4, the value",5

into arrays:

// csv could contain the content read from a csv file
var csv = '"foo, the column",bar\n2,3\n"4, the value",5',

    // Split the input into lines
    lines = csv.split('\n'),

    // Extract column names from the first line
    columnNamesLine = lines[0],
    columnNames = parse(columnNamesLine),

    // Extract data from subsequent lines
    dataLines = lines.slice(1),
    data = dataLines.map(parse);

// Prints ["foo, the column","bar"]
console.log(JSON.stringify(columnNames));

// Prints [["2","3"],["4, the value","5"]]
console.log(JSON.stringify(data));

Here's how you can transform the data into objects, like D3's csv parser (which is a solid third party solution):

var dataObjects = data.map(function (arr) {
  var dataObject = {};
  columnNames.forEach(function(columnName, i){
    dataObject[columnName] = arr[i];
  });
  return dataObject;
});

// Prints [{"foo":"2","bar":"3"},{"foo":"4","bar":"5"}]
console.log(JSON.stringify(dataObjects));

Here's a working fiddle of this code.

Enjoy! --Curran

Answer 2

Actually you can use a light-weight library called any-text.

• install dependencies

npm i -D any-text

• use custom command to read files

var reader = require('any-text');
 
reader.getText(`path-to-file`).then(function (data) {
  console.log(data);
});

or use async-await :

var reader = require('any-text');
 
const chai = require('chai');
const expect = chai.expect;
 
describe('file reader checks', () => {
  it('check csv file content', async () => {
    expect(
      await reader.getText(`${process.cwd()}/test/files/dummy.csv`)
    ).to.contains('Lorem ipsum');
  });
});

Answer 3

$(function() {

      $("#upload").bind("click", function() {
            var regex = /^([a-zA-Z0-9\s_\\.\-:])+(.csv|.xlsx)$/;
            if (regex.test($("#fileUpload").val().toLowerCase())) {
              if (typeof(FileReader) != "undefined") {
                var reader = new FileReader();
                reader.onload = function(e) {
                    var customers = new Array();
                    var rows = e.target.result.split("\r\n");
                    for (var i = 0; i < rows.length - 1; i++) {
                      var cells = rows[i].split(",");
                      if (cells[0] == "" || cells[0] == undefined) {
                        var s = customers[customers.length - 1];
                        s.Ord.push(cells[2]);
                      } else {
                        var dt = customers.find(x => x.Number === cells[0]);
                        if (dt == undefined) {
                          if (cells.length > 1) {
                            var customer = {};
                            customer.Number = cells[0];
                            customer.Name = cells[1];
                            customer.Ord = new Array();

                            customer.Ord.push(cells[2]);
                            customer.Point_ID = cells[3];
                            customer.Point_Name = cells[4];
                            customer.Point_Type = cells[5];
                            customer.Set_ORD = cells[6];
                            customers.push(customer);
                          }
                        } else {
                          var dtt = dt;
                          dtt.Ord.push(cells[2]);

                        }
                      }
                    }

Answer 4

I am using d3.js for parsing csv file. Very easy to use. Here is the docs.

Steps:

• npm install d3-request

Using Es6;

import { csv } from 'd3-request';
import url from 'path/to/data.csv';

csv(url, function(err, data) {
 console.log(data);
})

Please see docs for more.

Update - d3-request is deprecated. you can use d3-fetch

Answer 5

function CSVParse(csvFile)
{
    this.rows = [];

    var fieldRegEx = new RegExp('(?:\s*"((?:""|[^"])*)"\s*|\s*((?:""|[^",\r\n])*(?:""|[^"\s,\r\n]))?\s*)(,|[\r\n]+|$)', "g");   
    var row = [];
    var currMatch = null;

    while (currMatch = fieldRegEx.exec(this.csvFile))
    {
        row.push([currMatch[1], currMatch[2]].join('')); // concatenate with potential nulls

        if (currMatch[3] != ',')
        {
            this.rows.push(row);
            row = [];
        }

        if (currMatch[3].length == 0)
            break;
    }
}

I like to have the regex do as much as possible. This regex treats all items as either quoted or unquoted, followed by either a column delimiter, or a row delimiter. Or the end of text.

Which is why that last condition -- without it it would be an infinite loop since the pattern can match a zero length field (totally valid in csv). But since $ is a zero length assertion, it won't progress to a non match and end the loop.

And FYI, I had to make the second alternative exclude quotes surrounding the value; seems like it was executing before the first alternative on my javascript engine and considering the quotes as part of the unquoted value. I won't ask -- just got it to work.

Answer 6

If you want to solve this without using Ajax, use the FileReader() Web API.

Example implementation:

1. Select .csv file
2. See output

function readSingleFile(e) {
  var file = e.target.files[0];
  if (!file) {
    return;
  }

  var reader = new FileReader();
  reader.onload = function(e) {
    var contents = e.target.result;
    displayContents(contents);
    displayParsed(contents);
  };
  reader.readAsText(file);
}

function displayContents(contents) {
  var element = document.getElementById('file-content');
  element.textContent = contents;
}

function displayParsed(contents) {
  const element = document.getElementById('file-parsed');
  const json = contents.split(',');
  element.textContent = JSON.stringify(json);
}

document.getElementById('file-input').addEventListener('change', readSingleFile, false);

<input type="file" id="file-input" />

<h3>Raw contents of the file:</h3>
<pre id="file-content">No data yet.</pre>

<h3>Parsed file contents:</h3>
<pre id="file-parsed">No data yet.</pre>