CkCsv C++ Reference Documentation

CkCsv

Current Version: 10.0.0

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

// Local variable on the stack
CkCsv obj;

// Dynamically allocate/delete
CkCsv *pObj = new CkCsv();
// ...
delete pObj;

Properties

AutoTrim
bool get_AutoTrim(void);
void put_AutoTrim(bool newVal);

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

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Crlf
bool get_Crlf(void);
void put_Crlf(bool newVal);

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
void get_DebugLogFilePath(CkString &str);
const char *debugLogFilePath(void);
void put_DebugLogFilePath(const char *ansiOrUtf8Str);

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
void get_Delimiter(CkString &str);
const char *delimiter(void);
void put_Delimiter(const char *ansiOrUtf8Str);

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
bool get_EnableQuotes(void);
void put_EnableQuotes(bool newVal);
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
bool get_EscapeBackslash(void);
void put_EscapeBackslash(bool newVal);
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
bool get_HasColumnNames(void);
void put_HasColumnNames(bool newVal);

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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LastErrorHtml
void get_LastErrorHtml(CkString &str);
const char *lastErrorHtml(void);

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
void get_LastErrorText(CkString &str);
const char *lastErrorText(void);

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
void get_LastErrorXml(CkString &str);
const char *lastErrorXml(void);

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
bool get_LastMethodSuccess(void);
void put_LastMethodSuccess(bool newVal);

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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NumColumns
int get_NumColumns(void);

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
int get_NumRows(void);

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
void get_UncommonOptions(CkString &str);
const char *uncommonOptions(void);
void put_UncommonOptions(const char *ansiOrUtf8Str);
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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Utf8
bool get_Utf8(void);
void put_Utf8(bool newVal);

When set to true, all "const char *" arguments are interpreted as utf-8 strings. If set to false (the default), then "const char *" arguments are interpreted as ANSI strings. Also, when set to true, and Chilkat method returning a "const char *" is returning the utf-8 representation. If set to false, all "const char *" return values are ANSI strings.

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VerboseLogging
bool get_VerboseLogging(void);
void put_VerboseLogging(bool newVal);

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
void get_Version(CkString &str);
const char *version(void);

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

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Methods

DeleteColumn
bool DeleteColumn(int index);

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

Returns true for success, false for failure.

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DeleteColumnByName
bool DeleteColumnByName(const char *columnName);

Deletes a column specified by name.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

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DeleteRow
bool DeleteRow(int index);

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

Returns true for success, false for failure.

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GetCell
bool GetCell(int row, int col, CkString &outStr);
const char *getCell(int row, int col);

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

Returns true for success, false for failure.

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GetCellByName
bool GetCellByName(int rowIndex, const char *columnName, CkString &outStr);
const char *getCellByName(int rowIndex, const char *columnName);

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

Returns true for success, false for failure.

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GetColumnName
bool GetColumnName(int index, CkString &outStr);
const char *getColumnName(int index);

Returns the name of the Nth column.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

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GetIndex
int GetIndex(const char *columnName);

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

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GetNumCols
int GetNumCols(int row);

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
bool InsertColumn(int index);
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
bool LoadFile(const char *path);

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
bool LoadFile2(const char *filename, const char *charset);

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
bool LoadFromString(const char *csvData);

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

Returns true for success, false for failure.

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RowMatches
bool RowMatches(int rowIndex, const char *matchPattern, bool caseSensitive);

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
bool SaveFile(const char *path);

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
bool SaveFile2(const char *filename, const char *charset);

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
bool SaveToSb(CkStringBuilder &sb);
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
bool SaveToString(CkString &outStr);
const char *saveToString(void);

Returns the entire CSV as a string.

Returns true for success, false for failure.

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SetCell
bool SetCell(int row, int col, const char *content);

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
bool SetCellByName(int rowIndex, const char *columnName, const char *contentStr);

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
bool SetColumnName(int index, const char *columnName);

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
bool SortByColumn(const char *columnName, bool ascending, bool caseSensitive);

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
bool SortByColumnIndex(int index, bool ascending, bool caseSensitive);
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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