How to parse CSV data?

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

13 Answers

Here's another solution. This uses:

  • a coarse global regular expression for splitting the CSV string (which includes surrounding quotes and trailing commas)
  • fine-grained regular expression for cleaning up the surrounding quotes and trailing commas
  • also, has type correction differentiating strings, numbers, boolean values and null values

For the following input string:

"This is\, a value",Hello,4,-123,3.1415,'This is also\, possible',true,

The code outputs:

[
  "This is, a value",
  "Hello",
  4,
  -123,
  3.1415,
  "This is also, possible",
  true,
  null
]

Here's my implementation of parseCSVLine() in a runnable code snippet:

function parseCSVLine(text) {
  return text.match( /\s*(\"[^"]*\"|'[^']*'|[^,]*)\s*(,|$)/g ).map( function (text) {
    let m;
    if (m = text.match(/^\s*,?$/)) return null; // null value
    if (m = text.match(/^\s*\"([^"]*)\"\s*,?$/)) return m[1]; // Double Quoted Text
    if (m = text.match(/^\s*'([^']*)'\s*,?$/)) return m[1]; // Single Quoted Text
    if (m = text.match(/^\s*(true|false)\s*,?$/)) return m[1] === "true"; // Boolean
    if (m = text.match(/^\s*((?:\+|\-)?\d+)\s*,?$/)) return parseInt(m[1]); // Integer Number
    if (m = text.match(/^\s*((?:\+|\-)?\d*\.\d*)\s*,?$/)) return parseFloat(m[1]); // Floating Number
    if (m = text.match(/^\s*(.*?)\s*,?$/)) return m[1]; // Unquoted Text
    return text;
  } );
}

let data = `"This is\, a value",Hello,4,-123,3.1415,'This is also\, possible',true,`;
let obj = parseCSVLine(data);
console.log( JSON.stringify( obj, undefined, 2 ) );

Here's my simple vanilla JavaScript code:

let a = 'one,two,"three, but with a comma",four,"five, with ""quotes"" in it.."'
console.log(splitQuotes(a))

function splitQuotes(line) {
  if(line.indexOf('"') < 0) 
    return line.split(',')

  let result = [], cell = '', quote = false;
  for(let i = 0; i < line.length; i++) {
    char = line[i]
    if(char == '"' && line[i+1] == '"') {
      cell += char
      i++
    } else if(char == '"') {
      quote = !quote;
    } else if(!quote && char == ',') {
      result.push(cell)
      cell = ''
    } else {
      cell += char
    }
    if ( i == line.length-1 && cell) {
      result.push(cell)
    }
  }
  return result
}

Regular expressions to the rescue! These few lines of code handle properly quoted fields with embedded commas, quotes, and newlines based on the RFC 4180 standard.

function parseCsv(data, fieldSep, newLine) {
    fieldSep = fieldSep || ',';
    newLine = newLine || '\n';
    var nSep = '\x1D';
    var qSep = '\x1E';
    var cSep = '\x1F';
    var nSepRe = new RegExp(nSep, 'g');
    var qSepRe = new RegExp(qSep, 'g');
    var cSepRe = new RegExp(cSep, 'g');
    var fieldRe = new RegExp('(?<=(^|[' + fieldSep + '\\n]))"(|[\\s\\S]+?(?<![^"]"))"(?=($|[' + fieldSep + '\\n]))', 'g');
    var grid = [];
    data.replace(/\r/g, '').replace(/\n+$/, '').replace(fieldRe, function(match, p1, p2) {
        return p2.replace(/\n/g, nSep).replace(/""/g, qSep).replace(/,/g, cSep);
    }).split(/\n/).forEach(function(line) {
        var row = line.split(fieldSep).map(function(cell) {
            return cell.replace(nSepRe, newLine).replace(qSepRe, '"').replace(cSepRe, ',');
        });
        grid.push(row);
    });
    return grid;
}

const csv = 'A1,B1,C1\n"A ""2""","B, 2","C\n2"';
const separator = ',';      // field separator, default: ','
const newline = ' <br /> '; // newline representation in case a field contains newlines, default: '\n' 
var grid = parseCsv(csv, separator, newline);
// expected: [ [ 'A1', 'B1', 'C1' ], [ 'A "2"', 'B, 2', 'C <br /> 2' ] ]

You don't need a parser-generator such as lex/yacc. The regular expression handles RFC 4180 properly thanks to positive lookbehind, negative lookbehind, and positive lookahead.

Clone/download code at https://github.com/peterthoeny/parse-csv-js

Just throwing this out there.. I recently ran into the need to parse CSV columns with Javascript, and I opted for my own simple solution. It works for my needs, and may help someone else.

const csvString = '"Some text, some text",,"",true,false,"more text","more,text, more, text ",true';

const parseCSV = text => {
  const lines = text.split('\n');
  const output = [];

  lines.forEach(line => {
      line = line.trim();

      if (line.length === 0) return;

      const skipIndexes = {};
      const columns = line.split(',');

      output.push(columns.reduce((result, item, index) => {
          if (skipIndexes[index]) return result;

          if (item.startsWith('"') && !item.endsWith('"')) {
              while (!columns[index + 1].endsWith('"')) {
                  index++;
                  item += `,${columns[index]}`;
                  skipIndexes[index] = true;
              }

              index++;
              skipIndexes[index] = true;
              item += `,${columns[index]}`;
          }

          result.push(item);
          return result;
      }, []));
  });

  return output;
};

console.log(parseCSV(csvString));

I have constructed this JavaScript script to parse a CSV in string to array object. I find it better to break down the whole CSV into lines, fields and process them accordingly. I think that it will make it easy for you to change the code to suit your need.

    //
    //
    // CSV to object
    //
    //

    const new_line_char = '\n';
    const field_separator_char = ',';

    function parse_csv(csv_str) {

        var result = [];

        let line_end_index_moved = false;
        let line_start_index = 0;
        let line_end_index = 0;
        let csr_index = 0;
        let cursor_val = csv_str[csr_index];
        let found_new_line_char = get_new_line_char(csv_str);
        let in_quote = false;

        // Handle \r\n
        if (found_new_line_char == '\r\n') {
            csv_str = csv_str.split(found_new_line_char).join(new_line_char);
        }
        // Handle the last character is not \n
        if (csv_str[csv_str.length - 1] !== new_line_char) {
            csv_str += new_line_char;
        }

        while (csr_index < csv_str.length) {
            if (cursor_val === '"') {
                in_quote = !in_quote;
            } else if (cursor_val === new_line_char) {
                if (in_quote === false) {
                    if (line_end_index_moved && (line_start_index <= line_end_index)) {
                        result.push(parse_csv_line(csv_str.substring(line_start_index, line_end_index)));
                        line_start_index = csr_index + 1;
                    } // Else: just ignore line_end_index has not moved or line has not been sliced for parsing the line
                } // Else: just ignore because we are in a quote
            }
            csr_index++;
            cursor_val = csv_str[csr_index];
            line_end_index = csr_index;
            line_end_index_moved = true;
        }

        // Handle \r\n
        if (found_new_line_char == '\r\n') {
            let new_result = [];
            let curr_row;
            for (var i = 0; i < result.length; i++) {
                curr_row = [];
                for (var j = 0; j < result[i].length; j++) {
                    curr_row.push(result[i][j].split(new_line_char).join('\r\n'));
                }
                new_result.push(curr_row);
            }
            result = new_result;
        }
        return result;
    }

    function parse_csv_line(csv_line_str) {

        var result = [];

        //let field_end_index_moved = false;
        let field_start_index = 0;
        let field_end_index = 0;
        let csr_index = 0;
        let cursor_val = csv_line_str[csr_index];
        let in_quote = false;

        // Pretend that the last char is the separator_char to complete the loop
        csv_line_str += field_separator_char;

        while (csr_index < csv_line_str.length) {
            if (cursor_val === '"') {
                in_quote = !in_quote;
            } else if (cursor_val === field_separator_char) {
                if (in_quote === false) {
                    if (field_start_index <= field_end_index) {
                        result.push(parse_csv_field(csv_line_str.substring(field_start_index, field_end_index)));
                        field_start_index = csr_index + 1;
                    } // Else: just ignore field_end_index has not moved or field has not been sliced for parsing the field
                } // Else: just ignore because we are in quote
            }
            csr_index++;
            cursor_val = csv_line_str[csr_index];
            field_end_index = csr_index;
            field_end_index_moved = true;
        }
        return result;
    }

    function parse_csv_field(csv_field_str) {
        with_quote = (csv_field_str[0] === '"');

        if (with_quote) {
            csv_field_str = csv_field_str.substring(1, csv_field_str.length - 1); // remove the start and end quotes
            csv_field_str = csv_field_str.split('""').join('"'); // handle double quotes
        }
        return csv_field_str;
    }

    // Initial method: check the first newline character only
    function get_new_line_char(csv_str) {
        if (csv_str.indexOf('\r\n') > -1) {
            return '\r\n';
        } else {
            return '\n'
        }
    }
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