CSV-cpp

CSV-cpp is a simple and easy to use, header-only comma separated values (CSV) en- and decoder for C++.

Install

Install the headers using the CMake build system:

cd <path-to-repo>
git submodule update --init --recursive
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make install

or simply copy the header file into your project and include it directly.

Usage

CSV-cpp allows loading data from any std::istream. Simply call the decode() method or use the overloaded constructor.

#include <csvcpp.h>

int main()
{
	// create istream object "is" ...

	// use function
	csv::CsvFile myCsv;
	myCsv.decode(is);

	// or use constructor
	csv::CsvFile myCsv(is);
}

For convenience there is also a load() method that expects a file name and allows to parse file contents directly.

Rows and columns parsed from the stream can be accessed using the index operator []. The extracted value can be converted to various native types.

bool myBool = myCsv[0][0].as<bool>();
std::string myStr = myCsv[0][1].as<std::string>();
const char *myCStr = myCsv[0][2].as<const char *>();
int myInt = myCsv[0][3].as<int>();
unsigned int myUInt = myCsv[0][4].as<unsigned int>();
double myDouble = myCsv[0][5].as<double>();
float myFloat = myCsv[0][6].as<float>();

Natively supported types are:

• const char *
• std::string
• int
• unsigned int
• bool
• float
• double

Custom type conversions can be added by implementing an explicit cast and assignment operator for CsvValue.

#include <csvcpp.h>

struct MyDataType
{
	// ...
};

explicit operator MyDataType(const csv::CsvValue &csvVal)
{
	// convert std::string to your data type
	// return MyDataType::fromStr(csvVal.value_);
}

csv::CsvValue &operator=(csv::CsvValue &csvVal, const MyDataType &value)
{
	// conert your data type to a string
	// csvVal.value_ = value.toStr();
	// return csvVal;
}

Values can be assigned to csv values just by using the assignment operator. The content of the csv file can then be written to any std::ostream object.

#include <csvcpp.h>

int main()
{
	// create ostream object "os" ...

	csv::CsvFile myCsv;

	myCsv.push_back({1, "Hello world", true, 1.2});
	myCsv.push_back({"Foobar", 2.1f, -2});

	myCsv.encode(os);
}

For convenience there is also a save() function that expects a file name and stores the values of the CsvFile object in that file.

Custom value separator and comment character can be set with their setter functions or with one of the overloaded constructors.

#include <csvcpp.h>

int main()
{
	char sep = '\t';
	char comment = ';';

	// use the constructor
	csv::CsvFile myCsv1(sep, comment);

	// use the setter
	csv::CsvFile myCsv2;
	myCsv2.setValueSeparator(sep);
	myCsv2.setCommentChar(comment);
}

If your CSV rows are very long you can set a proposed row length (number of csv values per row) to make parsing more efficient.

#include <csvcpp.h>

int main()
{
	size_t rowLen = 2056;

	// use the setter
	csv::CsvFile myCsv;
	myCsv.proposeRowLength(rowLen);
}