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

You can use PapaParse to help. https://www.papaparse.com/

Here is a CodePen. https://codepen.io/sandro-wiggers/pen/VxrxNJ

Papa.parse(e, {
            header:true,
            before: function(file, inputElem){ console.log('Attempting to Parse...')},
            error: function(err, file, inputElem, reason){ console.log(err); },
            complete: function(results, file){ $.PAYLOAD = results; }
        });

Answer 2

No need to write your own...

The jQuery-CSV library has a function called $.csv.toObjects(csv) that does the mapping automatically.

Note: The library is designed to handle any CSV data that is RFC 4180 compliant, including all of the nasty edge cases that most 'simple' solutions overlook.

Like @Blazemonger already stated, first you need to add line breaks to make the data valid CSV.

Using the following dataset:

heading1,heading2,heading3,heading4,heading5
value1_1,value2_1,value3_1,value4_1,value5_1
value1_2,value2_2,value3_2,value4_2,value5_2

Use the code:

var data = $.csv.toObjects(csv):

The output saved in 'data' will be:

[
  { heading1:"value1_1",heading2:"value2_1",heading3:"value3_1",heading4:"value4_1",heading5:"value5_1" } 
  { heading1:"value1_2",heading2:"value2_2",heading3:"value3_2",heading4:"value4_2",heading5:"value5_2" }
]

Note: Technically, the way you wrote the key-value mapping is invalid JavaScript. The objects containing the key-value pairs should be wrapped in brackets.

If you want to try it out for yourself, I suggest you take a look at the Basic Usage Demonstration under the 'toObjects()' tab.

Disclaimer: I'm the original author of jQuery-CSV.

Update:

Edited to use the dataset that the op provided and included a link to the demo where the data can be tested for validity.

Update2:

Due to the shuttering of Google Code. jquery-csv has moved to GitHub

Answer 3

A bit late but I hope it helps someone.

Some time ago even I faced a problem where the string data contained \n in between and while reading the file it used to read as different lines.

Eg.

"Harry\nPotter","21","Gryffindor"

While-Reading:

Harry
Potter,21,Gryffindor

I had used a library csvtojson in my angular project to solve this problem.

You can read the CSV file as a string using the following code and then pass that string to the csvtojson library and it will give you a list of JSON.

Sample Code:

const csv = require('csvtojson');
if (files && files.length > 0) {
    const file: File = files.item(0);
    const reader: FileReader = new FileReader();
    reader.readAsText(file);
    reader.onload = (e) => {
    const csvs: string = reader.result as string;
    csv({
        output: "json",
        noheader: false
    }).fromString(csvs)
        .preFileLine((fileLine, idx) => {
        //Convert csv header row to lowercase before parse csv file to json
        if (idx === 0) { return fileLine.toLowerCase() }
        return fileLine;
        })
        .then((result) => {
        // list of json in result
        });
    }
}

Answer 4

NOTE: I concocted this solution before I was reminded about all the "special cases" that can occur in a valid CSV file, like escaped quotes. I'm leaving my answer for those who want something quick and dirty, but I recommend Evan's answer for accuracy.

---

This code will work when your data.txt file is one long string of comma-separated entries, with no newlines:

data.txt:

 heading1,heading2,heading3,heading4,heading5,value1_1,...,value5_2

javascript:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        url: "data.txt",
        dataType: "text",
        success: function(data) {processData(data);}
     });
});

function processData(allText) {
    var record_num = 5;  // or however many elements there are in each row
    var allTextLines = allText.split(/\r\n|\n/);
    var entries = allTextLines[0].split(',');
    var lines = [];

    var headings = entries.splice(0,record_num);
    while (entries.length>0) {
        var tarr = [];
        for (var j=0; j<record_num; j++) {
            tarr.push(headings[j]+":"+entries.shift());
        }
        lines.push(tarr);
    }
    // alert(lines);
}

The following code will work on a "true" CSV file with linebreaks between each set of records:

data.txt:

heading1,heading2,heading3,heading4,heading5
value1_1,value2_1,value3_1,value4_1,value5_1
value1_2,value2_2,value3_2,value4_2,value5_2

javascript:

$(document).ready(function() {
    $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        url: "data.txt",
        dataType: "text",
        success: function(data) {processData(data);}
     });
});

function processData(allText) {
    var allTextLines = allText.split(/\r\n|\n/);
    var headers = allTextLines[0].split(',');
    var lines = [];

    for (var i=1; i<allTextLines.length; i++) {
        var data = allTextLines[i].split(',');
        if (data.length == headers.length) {

            var tarr = [];
            for (var j=0; j<headers.length; j++) {
                tarr.push(headers[j]+":"+data[j]);
            }
            lines.push(tarr);
        }
    }
    // alert(lines);
}

http://jsfiddle.net/mblase75/dcqxr/

Answer 5

Here is another way to read an external CSV into Javascript (using jQuery).

It's a little bit more long winded, but I feel by reading the data into arrays you can exactly follow the process and makes for easy troubleshooting.

Might help someone else.

The data file example:

Time,data1,data2,data2
08/11/2015 07:30:16,602,0.009,321

And here is the code:

$(document).ready(function() {
 // AJAX in the data file
    $.ajax({
        type: "GET",
        url: "data.csv",
        dataType: "text",
        success: function(data) {processData(data);}
        });

    // Let's process the data from the data file
    function processData(data) {
        var lines = data.split(/\r\n|\n/);

        //Set up the data arrays
        var time = [];
        var data1 = [];
        var data2 = [];
        var data3 = [];

        var headings = lines[0].split(','); // Splice up the first row to get the headings

        for (var j=1; j<lines.length; j++) {
        var values = lines[j].split(','); // Split up the comma seperated values
           // We read the key,1st, 2nd and 3rd rows 
           time.push(values[0]); // Read in as string
           // Recommended to read in as float, since we'll be doing some operations on this later.
           data1.push(parseFloat(values[1])); 
           data2.push(parseFloat(values[2]));
           data3.push(parseFloat(values[3]));

        }

    // For display
    var x= 0;
    console.log(headings[0]+" : "+time[x]+headings[1]+" : "+data1[x]+headings[2]+" : "+data2[x]+headings[4]+" : "+data2[x]);
    }
})

Hope this helps someone in the future!

Answer 6

Don't split on commas -- it won't work for most CSV files, and this question has wayyyy too many views for the asker's kind of input data to apply to everyone. Parsing CSV is kind of scary since there's no truly official standard, and lots of delimited text writers don't consider edge cases.

This question is old, but I believe there's a better solution now that Papa Parse is available. It's a library I wrote, with help from contributors, that parses CSV text or files. It's the only JS library I know of that supports files gigabytes in size. It also handles malformed input gracefully.

1 GB file parsed in 1 minute:

(Update: With Papa Parse 4, the same file took only about 30 seconds in Firefox. Papa Parse 4 is now the fastest known CSV parser for the browser.)

Parsing text is very easy:

var data = Papa.parse(csvString);

Parsing files is also easy:

Papa.parse(file, {
    complete: function(results) {
        console.log(results);
    }
});

Streaming files is similar (here's an example that streams a remote file):

Papa.parse("http://example.com/bigfoo.csv", {
    download: true,
    step: function(row) {
        console.log("Row:", row.data);
    },
    complete: function() {
        console.log("All done!");
    }
});

If your web page locks up during parsing, Papa can use web workers to keep your web site reactive.

Papa can auto-detect delimiters and match values up with header columns, if a header row is present. It can also turn numeric values into actual number types. It appropriately parses line breaks and quotes and other weird situations, and even handles malformed input as robustly as possible. I've drawn on inspiration from existing libraries to make Papa, so props to other JS implementations.