CSV file processing in various languages

Introduction#

Small, simple csv files can be built using just a text editor. Reading and writing them, or otherwise processing their contents is done more efficiently using the products available for one’s language or systems of choice.

Reading and writing in Python

CSV(Comma Separated Values) is a simple file format used to store tabular data, such as a spreadsheet. This is a minimal example of how to write & read data in Python.

Writing data to a CSV file:

import csv
data = [["Ravi", "9", "550"], ["Joe", "8", "500"], ["Brian", "9", "520"]]
with open('students.csv', 'wb') as csvfile:
    writer = csv.writer(csvfile, delimiter=',')
    writer.writerows(data)

Reading data from a CSV file:

import csv
with open('students.csv', 'rb') as csvfile:
    spamreader = csv.reader(csvfile, delimiter=',',)
    for row in spamreader:
        print("Name: {} class: {} Marks: {}".format(row[0], row[1], row[2]))
output:
Name: Ravi class: 9 Marks: 550
Name: Joe class: 8 Marks: 500
Name: Brian class: 9 Marks: 520

Reading and writing in Java

Below example shows ways to read and write csv file without any third party libraries.

Write CSV

public void writeToCsvFile(List<String[]> thingsToWrite, String separator, String fileName){
    try (FileWriter writer = new FileWriter(fileName)){
        for (String[] strings : thingsToWrite) {
            for (int i = 0; i < strings.length; i++) {
                writer.append(strings[i]);
                if(i < (strings.length-1))
                    writer.append(separator);
            }
            writer.append(System.lineSeparator());
        }
        writer.flush();
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
}

Read CSV

// Allows to define custom separator
public List<String[]> readFromCsvFile(String separator, String fileName){
    try (BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(fileName))){
        List<String[]> list = new ArrayList<>();
        String line = "";
        while((line = reader.readLine()) != null){
            String[] array = line.split(separator);
            list.add(array);
        }
        return list;
    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
        return null;
    }  
}

There are also some pre-compiled third party libraries which provide convenient ways to parse csv files. Below are some examples of such libraries.

OpenCSV

OpenCSV is considered very simple to use and provides flexible functionalities while parsing CSV files

/** Reading CSV **/
// Allows varied parameters through constructors to define quote character, number of lines to skip, etc.
try(CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader("yourfile.csv"), separator)){
        List<String[]> = reader.readAll();
        // Do something with the data
}

/** Writing CSV **/
List<String[]> listToWrite= //fetch the list of string array to write;
try(CSVWriter writer = new CSVWriter(new FileWriter(fileName), separator)){
    writer.writeAll(listToWrite);
    writer.flush();
}

/** Dumping database records to CSV **/
// Initialize CSVWriter and fetch resultSet from database ...
    writer.writeAll(resultSet, includeColumnNames);

OpenCSV also allowes binding the records directly to JavaBeans. for more information refer official documentation here.

Other known libraries include SuperCSV and CommonsCSV which provide some advanced functionalities as-well. Refer to official documentation for more information.