Csv DataFlex Reference Documentation

Csv

Current Version: 9.5.0.97

A class for reading and updating CSV files. Provides methods for accessing cell contents by name or index, updating cells, reading and setting column names, etc.

Object Creation

// (Dataflex programs use the 32-bit Chilkat ActiveX)
Handle hoCsv
Get Create(RefClass(cComChilkatCsv)) to hoCsv

Properties

AutoTrim
Function ComAutoTrim Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComAutoTrim Boolean value

If True, then the strings returned by GetCell and GetCellByName are auto-trimmed of whitespace from both ends.

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Crlf
Function ComCrlf Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComCrlf Boolean value

If True, then CRLF line endings are used when saving the CSV to a file or to a string (i.e. for the methods SaveFile, SaveFile2, SaveToString). If False then bare LF line-endings are used.

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DebugLogFilePath
Function ComDebugLogFilePath Returns String
Procedure Set ComDebugLogFilePath String value

If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.

This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:

  1. a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
  2. the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
  3. there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

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Delimiter
Function ComDelimiter Returns String
Procedure Set ComDelimiter String value

The character that separates fields in a record. It is a comma by default. If the Delimiter property is not explicitly set, the CSV component will detect the delimiter when loading a CSV. (Semicolons are typically used in locales where the comma is used as a decimal point.)

Note 1: If the default comma delimiter is not desired when creating a new CSV, make sure to set this property before adding rows/columns to the CSV.

Note 2: If the application explicitly sets the delimiter to the vertical bar character ("|"), and if the EnableQuotes property was never explicitly set, then EnableQuotes will default to False. This is because when vertical bars are used, quotes are most likely to be treated the same as other characters.

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EnableQuotes
Function ComEnableQuotes Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComEnableQuotes Boolean value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.71

If True, then the double-quote characters cause the quoted content, including CR's, LF's, and delimiter chars to be treated as normal text when reading/writing CSVs. The default is True.

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EscapeBackslash
Function ComEscapeBackslash Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComEscapeBackslash Boolean value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.44

If True, then the backslash character is treated as an escape character when reading/writing CSVs. The default is False.

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HasColumnNames
Function ComHasColumnNames Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComHasColumnNames Boolean value

Set to True prior to loading a CSV if the 1st record contains column names. This allows the CSV parser to correctly load the column names and not treat them as data.

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LastBinaryResult
Function ComLastBinaryResult Returns Variant

The binary data returned by the last (binary data returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to True. This provides a means for obtaining large varbinary results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting large amounts of data returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for binary properties).

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LastErrorHtml
Function ComLastErrorHtml Returns String

Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorText
Function ComLastErrorText Returns String

Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorXml
Function ComLastErrorXml Returns String

Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastMethodSuccess
Function ComLastMethodSuccess Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComLastMethodSuccess Boolean value

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of True indicates success, a value of False indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

  • Any method that returns a string.
  • Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
  • Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = True and failure = False.
  • Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to True. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

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LastStringResult
Function ComLastStringResult Returns String

The string return value of the last (string returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to True. This provides a means for obtaining large string results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting long strings returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for string properties).

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LastStringResultLen
Function ComLastStringResultLen Returns Integer

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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NumColumns
Function ComNumColumns Returns Integer

The number of columns in the 1st row, which may be the row containing column names if HasColumnNames is True.

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NumRows
Function ComNumRows Returns Integer

The number of data rows. If the CSV has column names, the 1st row is not included in the count. Also, empty lines containing only whitespace characters that follow the last non-empty row are not included.

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UncommonOptions
Function ComUncommonOptions Returns String
Procedure Set ComUncommonOptions String value
Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

This is a catch-all property to be used for uncommon needs. Chilkat may from time to time define keywords, which if present, change behavior in some way. If multiple keywords are needed, set this property to the comma separated list of keywords.

The following keywords are defined:

  • QuotedCells (v9.5.0.96) Forces all cell contents to be double-quoted when emitting the CSV to a file or string
  • QuotedColumnNames (v9.5.0.96) Forces all column names to be double-quoted when emitting the CSV to a file or string
  • EMIT_BOM (v9.5.0.93) Causes Chilkat to emit the utf-8 BOM (byte order mark) when writing the CSV to a file (assuming the CSV is written using utf-8).

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VerboseLogging
Function ComVerboseLogging Returns Boolean
Procedure Set ComVerboseLogging Boolean value

If set to True, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is False. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Function ComVersion Returns String

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

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Methods

DeleteColumn
Function ComDeleteColumn Integer index Returns Boolean

Deletes the Nth column. (The 1st column is at index 0.)

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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DeleteColumnByName
Function ComDeleteColumnByName String columnName Returns Boolean

Deletes a column specified by name.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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DeleteRow
Function ComDeleteRow Integer index Returns Boolean

Deletes the entire Nth row. (The 1st row is at index 0.)

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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GetCell
Function ComGetCell Integer row Integer col Returns String

Returns the contents of the cell at row, col. Indexing begins at 0. (The topmost/leftmost cell is at 0,0)

Returns null on failure

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GetCellByName
Function ComGetCellByName Integer rowIndex String columnName Returns String

The same as GetCell, but the column is specified by name instead of by index.

Returns null on failure

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GetColumnName
Function ComGetColumnName Integer index Returns String

Returns the name of the Nth column.

Returns null on failure

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GetIndex
Function ComGetIndex String columnName Returns Integer

Returns the column index for a given column. Returns -1 if no column exists with the columnName.

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GetNumCols
Function ComGetNumCols Integer row Returns Integer

Returns the number of columns for a specific row. If the row is larger than the number of rows in the CSV, a zero is returned.

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InsertColumn
Function ComInsertColumn Integer index Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.89

Inserts a new and empty column before the Nth column. (The 1st column is at index 0.)

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadFile
Function ComLoadFile String path Returns Boolean

Loads a CSV from a file. It is assumed that the CSV file contains ANSI characters.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadFile2
Function ComLoadFile2 String filename String charset Returns Boolean

Loads a CSV from a file. The charset specifies the character encoding of the CSV file. A list of supported character encodings may be found on this page: Supported Charsets.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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LoadFromString
Function ComLoadFromString String csvData Returns Boolean

Loads a CSV document from an in-memory string variable.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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RowMatches
Function ComRowMatches Integer rowIndex String matchPattern Boolean caseSensitive Returns Boolean

Compares the contents of an entire row to a wildcarded match pattern where "*" can be used any number of times to match 0 or more of any character. Returns True if a match was found, otherwise returns False. If caseSensitive is True, then the pattern match is case sensitive, otherwise it is case insensitive.

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SaveFile
Function ComSaveFile String path Returns Boolean

Saves a CSV to a file. The output file is written using the ANSI character encoding.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SaveFile2
Function ComSaveFile2 String filename String charset Returns Boolean

Saves a CSV to a file. The charset specifies the character encoding to use for the CSV file. The text data is converted to this charset when saving. A list of supported character encodings may be found on this page: Supported Charsets.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SaveToSb
Function ComSaveToSb cComChilkatStringBuilder sb Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.93

Clears the contents of sb and writes the entire CSV into sb.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SaveToString
Function ComSaveToString Returns String

Returns the entire CSV as a string.

Returns null on failure

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SetCell
Function ComSetCell Integer row Integer col String content Returns Boolean

Sets the contents for a single cell in the CSV. The content may include any characters including CRLF's, double-quotes, and the delimiter character. The Save* methods automatically double-quote fields with special chars when saving. The Load* methods automatically parse double-quoted and/or escaped fields correctly when loading.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SetCellByName
Function ComSetCellByName Integer rowIndex String columnName String contentStr Returns Boolean

The same as SetCell, except the column is specified by name instead of by index.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SetColumnName
Function ComSetColumnName Integer index String columnName Returns Boolean

Sets the name of the Nth column. The first column is at index 0. This method would only return False if an invalid index is passed (such as a negative number).

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SortByColumn
Function ComSortByColumn String columnName Boolean ascending Boolean caseSensitive Returns Boolean

Sorts the rows in the CSV by the contents of a specific column. If ascending is True, the sort is in ascending order, otherwise descending order. If caseSensitive is True then the sorting is case sensitive.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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SortByColumnIndex
Function ComSortByColumnIndex Integer index Boolean ascending Boolean caseSensitive Returns Boolean
Introduced in version 9.5.0.83

Sorts the rows in the CSV by the contents of a specific column index. If ascending is True, the sort is in ascending order, otherwise descending order. If caseSensitive is True then the sorting is case sensitive.

Returns True for success, False for failure.

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