[java] Read CSV file column by column

I want to read specific columns from a multi column csv file and print those columns in other csv file using Java. Any help please? Following is my code to print each token line by line..But I am looking to print only few columns out of the multi column csv.

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.FileWriter;
import java.util.StringTokenizer;

public class ParseCSV {

    public static void main(String[] args) {

        try
        {

            //csv file containing data
            String strFile = "C:\\Users\\rsaluja\\CMS_Evaluation\\Drupal_12_08_27.csv";

            //create BufferedReader to read csv file
            BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader( new FileReader(strFile));
            String strLine = "";
            StringTokenizer st = null;
            int lineNumber = 0, tokenNumber = 0;

            //read comma separated file line by line
            while( (strLine = br.readLine()) != null)
            {
                lineNumber++;

                //break comma separated line using ","
                st = new StringTokenizer(strLine, ",");

                while(st.hasMoreTokens())
                {
                //display csv values
                tokenNumber++;
                System.out.println("Line # " + lineNumber +
                                ", Token # " + tokenNumber
                                + ", Token : "+ st.nextToken());


                            System.out.println(cols[4]);

This question is related to java csv file-io multiple-columns

The answer is


I am sorry, but none of these answers provide an optimal solution. If you use a library such as OpenCSV you will have to write a lot of code to handle special cases to extract information from specific columns.

For example, if you have rows with less columns than what you're after, you'll have to write a lot of code to handle it. Using the OpenCSV example:

  CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader(strFile));
  String [] nextLine;
  while ((nextLine = reader.readNext()) != null) {
       //let's say you are interested in getting columns 20, 30, and 40
       String[] outputRow = new String[3];
       if(parsedRow.length < 40){
            outputRow[2] = null;
       } else {
            outputRow[2] = parsedRow[40]
       }
       if(parsedRow.length < 30){
            outputRow[1] = null;
       } else {
            outputRow[1] = parsedRow[30]
       }
       if(parsedRow.length < 20){
            outputRow[0] = null;
       } else {
            outputRow[0] = parsedRow[20]
       }

  }

This is a lot of code for a simple requirement. It gets worse if you are trying to get values of columns by name. You should use a more modern parser such as the one provided by uniVocity-parsers.

To reliably and easily get the columns you want, simply write:

CsvParserSettings settings = new CsvParserSettings();
parserSettings.selectIndexes(20, 30, 40);
CsvParser parser = new CsvParser(settings);
List<String[]> allRows = parser.parseAll(new FileReader(yourFile));

Disclosure: I am the author of this library. It's open-source and free (Apache V2.0 license).


Finds all files in folder and write that data to ArrayList row.

Initialize

ArrayList<ArrayList<String>> row=new ArrayList<ArrayList<String>>();
BufferedReader br=null;

For Accessing row

for(ArrayList<String> data:row){
data.get(col no); 
}
or row.get(0).get(0) // getting first row first col

Functions that reads all files from folders and concatenate them row.

static void readData(){
String path="C:\\Users\\Galaxy Computers\\Desktop\\Java project\\Nasdaq\\";
File files=new File(path);
String[] list=files.list();

try {
        String sCurrentLine;
       char check;
       for(String filename:list){ 
        br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(path+filename));
        br.readLine();//If file contains uneccessary first line.
        while ((sCurrentLine = br.readLine()) != null) {

           row.add(splitLine(sCurrentLine));
        }
        }
        }

    } catch (IOException e) {
        e.printStackTrace();
    } 
        try {
            if (br != null)br.close();
        } catch (IOException ex) {
            ex.printStackTrace();
        }
    }


   static ArrayList<String> splitLine(String line){
   String[] ar=line.split(",");
   ArrayList<String> d=new ArrayList<String>();
   for(String data:ar){
    d.add(data);
   }

   return d; 
   } 

You should use the excellent OpenCSV for reading and writing CSV files. To adapt your example to use the library it would look like this:

public class ParseCSV {
  public static void main(String[] args) {
    try {
      //csv file containing data
      String strFile = "C:/Users/rsaluja/CMS_Evaluation/Drupal_12_08_27.csv";
      CSVReader reader = new CSVReader(new FileReader(strFile));
      String [] nextLine;
      int lineNumber = 0;
      while ((nextLine = reader.readNext()) != null) {
        lineNumber++;
        System.out.println("Line # " + lineNumber);

        // nextLine[] is an array of values from the line
        System.out.println(nextLine[4] + "etc...");
      }
    }
  }
}

Well, how about this !!

This code calculates both row and column count in a csv file. Try this out !!

    static int[] getRowsColsNo() {
    Scanner scanIn = null;
    int rows = 0;
    int cols = 0;
    String InputLine = "";
    try {
        scanIn = new Scanner(new BufferedReader(
                new FileReader("filename.csv")));
        scanIn.useDelimiter(",");
        while (scanIn.hasNextLine()) {
            InputLine = scanIn.nextLine();
            String[] InArray = InputLine.split(",");
            rows++;
            cols = InArray.length;
        }

    } catch (Exception e) {
        System.out.println(e);
    }
    return new int[] { rows, cols };
}

To read some specific column I did something like this:

dpkcs.csv content:
FN,LN,EMAIL,CC
Name1,Lname1,[email protected],CC1
Nmae2,Lname2,[email protected],CC2

The function to read it:

private void getEMailRecepientList() {
                List<EmailRecepientData> emailList = null;// Blank list of POJO class
                Scanner scanner = null;
                BufferedReader reader = null;
                try {
                    reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader("dpkcs.csv"));
                    Map<String, Integer> mailHeader = new HashMap<String, Integer>();
                    // read file line by line
                    String line = null;
                    int index = 0;
                    line = reader.readLine();
                    // Get header from 1st row of csv
                    if (line != null) {
                        StringTokenizer str = new StringTokenizer(line, ",");
                        int headerCount = str.countTokens();
                        for (int i = 0; i < headerCount; i++) {
                            String headerKey = str.nextToken();
                            mailHeader.put(headerKey.toUpperCase(), new Integer(i));

                        }
                    }
                    emailList = new ArrayList<EmailRecepientData>();

                    while ((line = reader.readLine()) != null) {
                    // POJO class for getter and setters
                        EmailRecepientData email = new EmailRecepientData();
                        scanner = new Scanner(line);
                        scanner.useDelimiter(",");
                    //Use Specific key to get value what u want
                        while (scanner.hasNext()) {
                            String data = scanner.next();
                            if (index == mailHeader.get("EMAIL"))
                                email.setEmailId(data);
                            else if (index == mailHeader.get("FN"))
                                email.setFirstName(data);
                            else if (index == mailHeader.get("LN"))
                                email.setLastName(data);
                            else if (index == mailHeader.get("CC"))
                                email.setCouponCode(data);

                            index++;
                        }
                        index = 0;
                        emailList.add(email);
                    }
                    reader.close();
                } catch (Exception e) {
                    StringWriter stack = new StringWriter();
                    e.printStackTrace(new PrintWriter(stack));

                } finally {
                    scanner.close();
                }

                System.out.println("list--" + emailList);

            }

The POJO Class:

public class EmailRecepientData {
    private String emailId;
    private String firstName;
    private String lastName;
    private String couponCode;

    public String getEmailId() {
        return emailId;
    }

    public void setEmailId(String emailId) {
        this.emailId = emailId;
    }

    public String getFirstName() {
        return firstName;
    }

    public void setFirstName(String firstName) {
        this.firstName = firstName;
    }

    public String getLastName() {
        return lastName;
    }

    public void setLastName(String lastName) {
        this.lastName = lastName;
    }

    public String getCouponCode() {
        return couponCode;
    }

    public void setCouponCode(String couponCode) {
        this.couponCode = couponCode;
    }

    @Override
    public String toString() {
        return "Email Id=" + emailId + ", First Name=" + firstName + " ,"
                + " Last Name=" + lastName + ", Coupon Code=" + couponCode + "";
    }

}

We can use the core java stuff alone to read the CVS file column by column. Here is the sample code I have wrote for my requirement. I believe that it will help for some one.

 BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(csvFile));
    String line = EMPTY;
    int lineNumber = 0;

    int productURIIndex = -1;
    int marketURIIndex = -1;
    int ingredientURIIndex = -1;
    int companyURIIndex = -1;

    // read comma separated file line by line
    while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
        lineNumber++;
        // use comma as line separator
        String[] splitStr = line.split(COMMA);
        int splittedStringLen = splitStr.length;

        // get the product title and uri column index by reading csv header
        // line
        if (lineNumber == 1) {
            for (int i = 0; i < splittedStringLen; i++) {
                if (splitStr[i].equals(PRODUCTURI_TITLE)) {
                    productURIIndex = i;
                    System.out.println("product_uri index:" + productURIIndex);
                }

                if (splitStr[i].equals(MARKETURI_TITLE)) {
                    marketURIIndex = i;
                    System.out.println("marketURIIndex:" + marketURIIndex);
                }

                if (splitStr[i].equals(COMPANYURI_TITLE)) {
                    companyURIIndex = i;
                    System.out.println("companyURIIndex:" + companyURIIndex);
                }

                if (splitStr[i].equals(INGREDIENTURI_TITLE)) {
                    ingredientURIIndex = i;
                    System.out.println("ingredientURIIndex:" + ingredientURIIndex);
                }
            }
        } else {
            if (splitStr != null) {
                String conditionString = EMPTY;
                // avoiding arrayindexoutboundexception when the line
                // contains only ,,,,,,,,,,,,,
                for (String s : splitStr) {
                    conditionString = s;
                }
                if (!conditionString.equals(EMPTY)) {
                    if (productURIIndex != -1) {
                        productCVSUriList.add(splitStr[productURIIndex]);
                    }
                    if (companyURIIndex != -1) {
                        companyCVSUriList.add(splitStr[companyURIIndex]);
                    }
                    if (marketURIIndex != -1) {
                        marketCVSUriList.add(splitStr[marketURIIndex]);
                    }
                    if (ingredientURIIndex != -1) {
                        ingredientCVSUriList.add(splitStr[ingredientURIIndex]);
                    }
                }
            }
        }

I sugges to use the Apache Commons CSV https://commons.apache.org/proper/commons-csv/

Here is one example:

    Path currentRelativePath = Paths.get("");
    String currentPath = currentRelativePath.toAbsolutePath().toString();
    String csvFile = currentPath + "/pathInYourProject/test.csv";

    Reader in;
    Iterable<CSVRecord> records = null;
    try
    {
        in = new FileReader(csvFile);
        records = CSVFormat.EXCEL.withHeader().parse(in); // header will be ignored
    }
    catch (IOException e)
    {
        e.printStackTrace();
    }

    for (CSVRecord record : records) {
        String line = "";
        for ( int i=0; i < record.size(); i++)
        {
            if ( line == "" )
                line = line.concat(record.get(i));
            else
                line = line.concat("," + record.get(i));
        }
        System.out.println("read line: " + line);
    }

It automaticly recognize , and " but not ; (maybe it can be configured...).

My example file is:

col1,col2,col3
val1,"val2",val3
"val4",val5
val6;val7;"val8"

And output is:

read line: val1,val2,val3
read line: val4,val5
read line: val6;val7;"val8"

Last line is considered like one value.


Reading a CSV file in very simple and common in Java. You actually don't require to load any extra third party library to do this for you. CSV (comma separated value) file is just a normal plain-text file, store data in column by column, and split it by a separator (e.g comma ",").

In order to read specific columns from the CSV file, there are several ways. Simplest of all is as below:

Code to read CSV without any 3rd party library

BufferedReader br = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(csvFile));
while ((line = br.readLine()) != null) {
    // use comma as separator
    String[] cols = line.split(cvsSplitBy);
    System.out.println("Coulmn 4= " + cols[4] + " , Column 5=" + cols[5]);
}

If you notice, nothing special is performed here. It is just reading a text file, and spitting it by a separator – ",".

Consider an extract from legacy country CSV data at GeoLite Free Downloadable Databases

"1.0.0.0","1.0.0.255","16777216","16777471","AU","Australia"
"1.0.1.0","1.0.3.255","16777472","16778239","CN","China"
"1.0.4.0","1.0.7.255","16778240","16779263","AU","Australia"
"1.0.8.0","1.0.15.255","16779264","16781311","CN","China"
"1.0.16.0","1.0.31.255","16781312","16785407","JP","Japan"
"1.0.32.0","1.0.63.255","16785408","16793599","CN","China"
"1.0.64.0","1.0.127.255","16793600","16809983","JP","Japan"
"1.0.128.0","1.0.255.255","16809984","16842751","TH","Thailand"

Above code will output as below:

Column 4= "AU" , Column 5="Australia"
Column 4= "CN" , Column 5="China"
Column 4= "AU" , Column 5="Australia"
Column 4= "CN" , Column 5="China"
Column 4= "JP" , Column 5="Japan"
Column 4= "CN" , Column 5="China"
Column 4= "JP" , Column 5="Japan"
Column 4= "TH" , Column 5="Thailand"

You can, in fact, put the columns in a Map and then get the values simply by using the key.

Shishir


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