convert CSV lines into Javascript objects
Using ES6/ES7 and some functional programming guidelines:
- All variables are
const
(immutability) - Use
map
/reduce
instead ofwhile
/for
- All functions are Arrow
- No dependencies
// Split data into lines and separate headers from actual data
// using Array spread operator
const [headerLine, ...lines] = data.split('\n');
// Split headers line into an array
// `valueSeparator` may come from some kind of argument
// You may want to transform header strings into something more
// usable, like `camelCase` or `lowercase-space-to-dash`
const valueSeparator = '\t';
const headers = headerLine.split(valueSeparator);
// Create objects from parsing lines
// There will be as much objects as lines
const objects = lines
.map( (line, index) =>
line
// Split line with value separators
.split(valueSeparator)
// Reduce values array into an object like: { [header]: value }
// https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/JavaScript/Reference/Global_Objects/Array/reduce
.reduce(
// Reducer callback
(object, value, index) => ({
...object,
[ headers[index] ]: value,
}),
// Initial value (empty JS object)
{}
)
);
console.log("Objects:", objects);
For CSV files using ,
as separator and quotes string values, you can use this version:
// Split data into lines and separate headers from actual data
// using Array spread operator
const [headerLine, ...lines] = data.split('\n');
// Use common line separator, which parses each line as the contents of a JSON array
const parseLine = (line) => JSON.parse(`[${line}]`);
// Split headers line into an array
const headers = parseLine(headerLine);
// Create objects from parsing lines
// There will be as much objects as lines
const objects = lines
.map( (line, index) =>
// Split line with JSON
parseLine(line)
// Reduce values array into an object like: { [header]: value }
.reduce(
(object, value, index) => ({
...object,
[ headers[index] ]: value,
}),
{}
)
);
return objects;
Note: For big files, it would be better to work with streams, generators, iterators, etc.
By doing this:
arr = bufferString.split('\n');
you will have an array containing all rows as string
["fname, lname, uid, phone, address","John, Doe, 1, 444-555-6666, 34 dead rd",...]
You have to break it again by comma using .split(',')
, then separate the headers and push it into an Javascript Object:
var jsonObj = [];
var headers = arr[0].split(',');
for(var i = 1; i < arr.length; i++) {
var data = arr[i].split(',');
var obj = {};
for(var j = 0; j < data.length; j++) {
obj[headers[j].trim()] = data[j].trim();
}
jsonObj.push(obj);
}
JSON.stringify(jsonObj);
Then you will have an object like this:
[{"fname":"John",
"lname":"Doe",
"uid":"1",
"phone":"444-555-6666",
"address":"34 dead rd"
}, ... }]
See this FIDDLE