CSV Module

This XQuery Module contains a single function to parse CSV input. CSV (comma-separated values) is a popular representation for tabular data, exported e. g. from Excel.

Conventions

All functions in this module are assigned to the http://basex.org/modules/csv namespace, which is statically bound to the csv prefix.
All errors are assigned to the http://basex.org/errors namespace, which is statically bound to the bxerr prefix.

Rules

Version 7.7.2: the conversion rules have been updated and aligned with the JSON parser:

The conversion of CSV data is based on the following rules:

1. The resulting document has a <csv/> root node.
2. Rows are represented via <record/> nodes.
3. Fields are either named entry or (if the CSV header is parsed) named by the corresponding column name:
   1. Empty field names are represented by a single underscore (<_>...</_>).
   2. Underscore characters are rewritten to two underscores (__).
   3. A character that cannot be represented as NCName character is rewritten to an underscore and its four-digit Unicode.

Functions

csv:parse

Signatures	csv:parse($input as xs:string) as element(csv) csv:parse($input as xs:string, $options as item()) as element(csv)
Summary	Converts the CSV data specified by $input to XML, and returns the result as element(csv) value. The $options argument can be used to control the way the input is converted. The following options are available: separator defines the character which separates columns in a row. By default, this is a comma (,). headers specifies if the input contains a header row. The default value is false. Options can either be specified as children of an <csv:options/> element; e.g.: <csv:options> <csv:separator value=';'/> ... </csv:options> or as map, which contains all key/value pairs: { 'separator' : ';', ... }
Errors	BXCS0001: the input cannot be converted. BXCS0003: the specified separator must be a single character.

csv:serialize

Signatures	csv:serialize($input as node(), $options as item()) as xs:string
Summary	Serializes the node specified by $input as CSV data, and returns the result as xs:string. XML documents can also be serialized as CSV if the Serialization Option "method" is set to "csv". The $options argument can be used to control the way the node is serialized. The following options are available: separator defines the character which separates columns in a row. By default, this is a comma (,). headers specifies if the input element names are to be interpreted as header names. The default value is false. Options can either be specified as children of an <csv:options/> element; e.g.: <csv:options> <csv:separator value=';'/> ... </csv:options> or as map, which contains all key/value pairs: { 'separator' : ';', ... }
Errors	BXCS0002: the input cannot be serialized. BXCS0003: the specified separator must be a single character.

Errors

Code	Description
BXCS0001	The input cannot be converted.
BXCS0002	The node cannot be serialized.
BXCS0001	The specified separator must be a single character.

Changelog

The module was introduced with Version 7.7.2.