What is opencsv?
opencsv is a very simple csv (comma-separated values) parser library for Java. It was developed because all of current csv parsers I've come across don't have commercial-friendly licenses.
Where can I get it?
Source and binaries are available from
Sourceforge. You can check out the
javadocs
online.
What features does opencsv support?
opencsv supports all the basic csv-type things you're likely to want to do:
How do I read and parse a CSV file?
If you want to use an Iterator style pattern, you might do something like this:
Or, if you might just want to slurp the whole lot into a
which will give you a
Can I use my own separators and quote characters?
Yes. There are constructors that cater for supplying your own separator and quote characters. Say you're using a tab for your separator, you can do something like this:
And if you single quoted your escaped characters rather than double quote them, you can use the three arg constructor:
You may also skip the first few lines of the file if you know that the content doesn't start till later in the file. So, for example, you can skip the first two lines by doing:
Can I write csv files with opencsv?
Yes. There is a CSVWriter in the same package that follows the same semantics as the CSVReader. For example, to write a tab separated file:
If you'd prefer to use your own quote characters, you may use the three arg version of the constructor, which takes a quote character (or feel free to pass in CSVWriter.NO_QUOTE_CHARACTER).You can also customise the line terminators used in the generated file (which is handy when you're exporting from your Linux web application to Windows clients). There is a constructor argument for this purpose.
Can I dump out SQL tables to CSV?
Yes you can. Sean Sullivan added a neat feature to CSVWriter so you can pass
Is there a way to bind my CSV file to a list of Javabeans?
Yes there is. Kyle Miller added a new set of classes to allow you to bind a CSV file to a list of JavaBeans based on column name, column position, or a custom mapping strategy. You can find the new classes in the
For more detailed examples, check out the test cases for each of the available mapping strategies under the /test/au/com/bytecode/opencsv/bean/.
- Arbitrary numbers of values per line
- Ignoring commas in quoted elements
- Handling quoted entries with embedded carriage returns (ie entries that span multiple lines)
- Configurable separator and quote characters (or use sensible defaults)
- Read all the entries at once, or use an Iterator style model
- Creating csv files from String[] (ie. automatic escaping of embedded quote chars)
CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader("yourfile.csv")); String [] nextLine; while ((nextLine = reader.readNext()) != null) { // nextLine[] is an array of values from the line System.out.println(nextLine[0] + nextLine[1] + "etc..."); }
List
, just call
readAll()
...
CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader("yourfile.csv")); List myEntries = reader.readAll();
List
of
String[]
that you can iterate over. If all else fails, check out the
Javadoc.
CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader("yourfile.csv"), '\t');
CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader("yourfile.csv"), '\t', '\'');
CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader("yourfile.csv"), '\t', '\'', 2);
CSVWriter writer = new CSVWriter(new FileWriter("yourfile.csv"), '\t'); // feed in your array (or convert your data to an array) String[] entries = "first#second#third".split("#"); writer.writeNext(entries); writer.close();
writeAll()
a ResultSet.
java.sql.ResultSet myResultSet = .... writer.writeAll(myResultSet, includeHeaders);
au.com.bytecode.opencsv.bean
package. Here's how you can map to a java bean based on the field positions in your CSV file:
ColumnPositionMappingStrategy strat = new ColumnPositionMappingStrategy(); strat.setType(YourOrderBean.class); String[] columns = new String[] {"name", "orderNumber", "id"}; // the fields to bind do in your JavaBean strat.setColumnMapping(columns); CsvToBean csv = new CsvToBean(); List list = csv.parse(strat, yourReader);