The csv().from property provides functions to read from an external source and write to a CSV instance. The source may be a string, a file, a buffer or a readable stream.

You may call the from function or one of its sub function. For example, here are two identical ways to read from a file:

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csv.from('/tmp/data.csv').on('data', console.log);
csv.from.path('/tmp/data.csv').on('data', console.log);

from(mixed)

Read from any sort of source. It should be considered as a convenient function which will discover the nature of the data source to parse.

If the parameter is a string, check if a file of that path exists. If so, read the file contents, otherwise, treat the string as CSV data. If the parameter is an instance of stream, consider the object to be an input stream. If it is an array, then treat each line as a record.

Here are some examples on how to use this function:

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csv()
.from('"1","2","3","4"\n"a","b","c","d"')
.on('end', function(){ console.log('done') })

csv()
.from('./path/to/file.csv')
.on('end', function(){ console.log('done') })

csv()
.from(fs.createReadStream('./path/to/file.csv'))
.on('end', function(){ console.log('done') })

csv()
.from(['"1","2","3","4","5"',['1','2','3','4','5']])
.on('end', function(){ console.log('done') })

from.options([options])

Update and retrieve options relative to the input source. Return the options as an object if no argument is provided.

• delimiter Set the field delimiter. One character only, defaults to comma.
• rowDelimiter String used to delimit record rows or a special value; special values are ‘auto’, ‘unix’, ‘mac’, ‘windows’, ‘unicode’; defaults to ‘auto’ (discovered in source or ‘unix’ if no source is specified).
• quote Optionnal character surrounding a field, one character only, defaults to double quotes.
• escape Set the escape character, one character only, defaults to double quotes.
• columns List of fields or true if autodiscovered in the first CSV line, default to null. Impact the transform argument and the data event by providing an object instead of an array, order matters, see the transform and the columns sections for more details.
• comment Treat all the characteres after this one as a comment, default to ‘#’
• flags Used to read a file stream, default to the r charactere.
• encoding Encoding of the read stream, defaults to ‘utf8’, applied when a readable stream is created.
• trim If true, ignore whitespace immediately around the delimiter, defaults to false.
• ltrim If true, ignore whitespace immediately following the delimiter (i.e. left-trim all fields), defaults to false.
• rtrim If true, ignore whitespace immediately preceding the delimiter (i.e. right-trim all fields), defaults to false.

Additionnally, in case you are working with stream, you can pass all the options accepted by the stream.pipe function.

from.array(data, [options])

Read from an array. Take an array as first argument and optionally an object of options as a second argument. Each element of the array represents a CSV record. Those elements may be a string, a buffer, an array or an object.

from.string(data, [options])

Read from a string or a buffer. Take a string as first argument and optionally an object of options as a second argument. The string must be the complete csv data, look at the streaming alternative if your CSV is large.

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csv()
.from( '"1","2","3","4"\n"a","b","c","d"' )
.to( function(data){} )

from.stream(stream, [options])

Read from a stream. Take a readable stream as first argument and optionally an object of options as a second argument.

Additionnal options may be defined. See the readable.pipe documentation for additionnal information.

from.path(path, [options])

Read from a file path. Take a file path as first argument and optionally an object of options as a second argument.

Additionnal options may be defined with the following default:

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{ flags: 'r',
  encoding: null,
  fd: null,
  mode: 0666,
  bufferSize: 64 * 1024,
  autoClose: true }

See the fs.createReadStream documentation for additionnal information.