Simple CSV read and write using Lua

Update Dec 5th 2014: Fixed and updated the code.
Update Mar 9th 2017: Updated the code to handle null values in CSV.

This is a simplified Lua script to read and write CSV files. It assumes the separator character does not exist in one of the values.

I don’t know why I couldn’t find a simple code snippet to do this on the net, but sometimes it’s just faster to write it than to search for it. Hopefully this will save you that time too:

--[[
-------------------------------
Save this file as simplecsv.lua
-------------------------------

Example use: Suppose file csv1.txt is:

1.23,70,hello
there,9.81,102
x,y,,z
8,1.243,test

Then the following
-------------------------------------
local csvfile = require "simplecsv"
local m = csvfile.read('./csv1.txt') -- read file csv1.txt to matrix m
print(m[2][3])                       -- display element in row 2 column 3 (102)
m[1][3] = 'changed'                  -- change element in row 1 column 3
m[2][3] = 123.45                     -- change element in row 2 column 3
csvfile.write('./csv2.txt', m)       -- write matrix to file csv2.txt
-------------------------------------

will produce file csv2.txt with the contents:

1.23,70,changed
there,9.81,123.45
x,y,,z
8,1.243,test

the read method takes 4 parameters:
path: the path of the CSV file to read - mandatory
sep: the separator character of the fields. Optionsl, defaults to ','
tonum: whether to convert fields to numbers if possible. Optional. Defaults to true
null: what value should null fields get. Optional. defaults to ''
]]

module(..., package.seeall)

---------------------------------------------------------------------
function string:split(sSeparator, nMax, bRegexp)
    if sSeparator == '' then
        sSeparator = ','
    end

    if nMax and nMax < 1 then
        nMax = nil
    end

    local aRecord = {}

    if self:len() > 0 then
        local bPlain = not bRegexp
        nMax = nMax or -1

        local nField, nStart = 1, 1
        local nFirst,nLast = self:find(sSeparator, nStart, bPlain)
        while nFirst and nMax ~= 0 do
            aRecord[nField] = self:sub(nStart, nFirst-1)
            nField = nField+1
            nStart = nLast+1
            nFirst,nLast = self:find(sSeparator, nStart, bPlain)
            nMax = nMax-1
        end
        aRecord[nField] = self:sub(nStart)
    end

    return aRecord
end

---------------------------------------------------------------------
function read(path, sep, tonum, null)
    tonum = tonum or true
    sep = sep or ','
    null = null or ''
    local csvFile = {}
    local file = assert(io.open(path, "r"))
    for line in file:lines() do
        fields = line:split(sep)
        if tonum then -- convert numeric fields to numbers
            for i=1,#fields do
                local field = fields[i]
                if field == '' then
                    field = null
                end
                fields[i] = tonumber(field) or field
            end
        end
        table.insert(csvFile, fields)
    end
    file:close()
    return csvFile
end

---------------------------------------------------------------------
function write(path, data, sep)
    sep = sep or ','
    local file = assert(io.open(path, "w"))
    for i=1,#data do
        for j=1,#data[i] do
            if j>1 then file:write(sep) end
            file:write(data[i][j])
        end
        file:write('\n')
    end
    file:close()
end

---------------------------------------------------------------------

11 Comments

    • I’m not sure why you encountered the error but there were some errors when transferring the code to the blog post. I’ve updated, cleaned and tested the code so please try it now and let me know if you still have problems with it.

      • ———————-
        package.path = “/etc/nginx/?.lua;” .. package.path
        require “store_key_script”

        ngx.print(package.path)
        ngx.print(“::::” .. package.cpath)
        local fileData = readCSV(“key_store.txt”)
        ngx.print(fileData)

        ngx.print(“n————-“);
        writeCSV(fileData)
        —————————————

        local function split(str, sep)

        sep = sep or ‘,’
        fields={}
        local matchfunc = string.gmatch(str, “([^”..sep..”]+)”)
        if not matchfunc then return {str} end
        for str in matchfunc do
        table.insert(fields, str)
        end
        return fields
        end

        function readCSV(path, sep)
        –tonum = tonum or true
        sep = sep or ‘,’
        local csvFile = {}
        local file = assert(io.open(path, “r”))
        for line in file:lines() do
        fields = split(line, sep)

        — not using tonum now

        –if tonum then — convert numeric fields to numbers
        — for i=1,#fields do
        — fields[i] = tonumber(fields[i]) or fields[i]
        — end
        –end
        table.insert(csvFile, fields)
        end
        file:close()
        return csvFile
        end

        function writeCSV(data, path, sep)
        — just want to print in browser only

        sep = sep or ‘,’
        –local file = assert(io.open(path, “w”))
        for i=1,#data do
        for j=1,#data[i] do
        if j>1 then ngx.print(sep) end
        ngx.print(data[i][j])
        end
        ngx.print(“n”)
        end
        –file:close()
        return true
        end
        —————————-

        If reload the server it works fine at the first attemp but gives following error in next attempts :
        storeKeyScript.lua:6: attempt to call global ‘readCSV’ (a nil value) . Help!!

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  2. Hello,
    I have a code that prints in Lua console and When I am writing to CSV file its not working

    print (“x, y, z, a, b, c, d, e”)
    for j=0,i do
    print (x[j],”,”,y[j],”,”,z[j],”,”,a[j],”,”,b[j],”,”,c[j],”,”,d[j],”,”,e[j])
    end

    How I can write those values in CSV … as I copied lua script from Text file and ran it . Its printing the values in console but not in CSV. Can you provide code

    • It is printing the values to the console because that is what you requesting it to do when use use print.

      In order to write to a CSV, you should either use the csvfile.write function as shown in the commented section or use the same method that csvfile.write uses by opening a file for writing, e.g:

      local file = assert(io.open(path, “w”))

      and then use file.write instead of print

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