Reading a csv file async - NodeJS

Question

I am trying to create a function where I can pass file path and the read the file in async way. What I found out was that it supports streams()

const fs = require('fs');
var parse = require('csv-parse');
var async = require('async');

readCSVData = async (filePath): Promise<any> => {
    let csvString = '';
    var parser = parse({delimiter: ','}, function (err, data) {
        async.eachSeries(data, function (line, callback) {
            csvString = csvString + line.join(',')+'\n';
            console.log(csvString) // I can see this value getting populated
        })
      });
      fs.createReadStream(filePath).pipe(parser);
}

I got this code from here. but I am new to node js so I am not getting how to use await to get the data once all lines are parsed.

const csvData = await this.util.readCSVData(path)

is there any promise base csv library is exist right now for node js older versions (i.e nodejs v4.2.0) — Nithish, Jun 06 '19 at 07:18

score 22 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 15 '19 at 19:46

22

My best workaround for this task is:

const csv = require('csvtojson')
const csvFilePath = 'data.csv'
const array = await csv().fromFile(csvFilePath);

answered Jul 15 '19 at 19:46

HMagdy

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1

This answer helped to fix the issue I was facing. – KK2491 Apr 07 '21 at 09:33

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 06 '18 at 15:31

This answer provides legacy code that uses async library. Promise-based control flow with async doesn't need this library. Asynchronous processing with async.eachSeries doesn't serve a good purpose inside csv-parse callback because a callback waits for data to be filled with all collected data.

If reading all data into memory is not an issue, CSV stream can be converted to a promise:

const fs = require('fs');
const getStream = require('get-stream');
const parse = require('csv-parse');

readCSVData = async (filePath): Promise<any> => {
  const parseStream = parse({delimiter: ','});
  const data = await getStream.array(fs.createReadStream(filePath).pipe(parseStream));
  return data.map(line => line.join(',')).join('\n');
}

I can't say about better, but it processes data in chunks, this will waste less memory if a file is big. Also, `data` should preferably be processed in-place instead of accumulating it into a single big array. — Estus Flask, Apr 11 '22 at 22:01

Reading a csv file async - NodeJS

2 Answers2