jcfrank / erl_csv_generator

Generate CSV files in Erlang

erl_csv_generator

This erlang module allows you to generate CSV files in an easy way.

Installation

In your rebar.config:

{deps, [
  {erl_csv_generator, ".*", {git, "https://github.com/manastech/erl_csv_generator.git"}}
]}.

Usage

This module provides some functions to write CSV data to an IoDevice. An IoDevice is what you get by, for example, calling file:open.

The main interface to the CSV generation is csv_gen:row:

{ok, File} = file:open("test.csv", [write]),
csv_gen:row(File, ["Product", "Quantity"]),
csv_gen:row(File, ["Coffee", 10]),
csv_gen:row(File, ["Tea \"Cha\" extra strong", 20]),
file:close(File).

The above code will put this in test.csv:

Product,Quantity
Coffee,10
"Tea ""Cha"" extra strong",20

This library will make sure to put quotes when appropriate (when there's a double quote, comma or newline) and to escape double quotes.

The valid values for a row are integers, lists (strings) and binaries. You should convert other types to binary before invoking csv_gen:row.

Generating compressed files

Erlang's file:open accepts a compressed option:

{ok, File} = file:open("test.csv.zip", [write, compressed]),
csv_gen:row(File, ["Compressed", "File"]),
file:close(File).

Lower-level API

You can use csv_gen:field, csv_gen:comma and csv_gen:newline to generate a CSV cell by cell:

{ok, File} = file:open("test.csv", [write]),

csv_gen:field(File, "Product"),
csv_gen:comma(File),
csv_gen:field(File, "Quantity"),
csv_gen:newline()

csv_gen:field(File, "Coffee"),
csv_gen:comma(File),
csv_gen:field(File, 10),

file:close(File).

Contributing

1. Fork it ( https://github.com/manastech/erl_csv_generator/fork )
2. Create your feature branch (git checkout -b my-new-feature)
3. Commit your changes (git commit -am 'Add some feature')
4. Push to the branch (git push origin my-new-feature)
5. Create a new Pull Request