Search code examples
csvparsingswift3

swift 3.1 how to get array or dictionary from CSV

How could I use data in this kind of CSV file? Or how could I print for example row 2 value for "inside" column and assign it to a property / entity?

I have this kind of file I got from excel file converted to Numbers, I'd like to grab data for each column and use them.

The original CSV file opened in numbers:

enter image description here

The console output I got:

enter image description here

Using this methods:

func readDataFromCSV(fileName:String, fileType: String)-> String!{
        guard let filepath = Bundle.main.path(forResource: fileName, ofType: fileType)
            else {
                return nil
        }
        do {
            var contents = try String(contentsOfFile: filepath, encoding: .utf8)
            contents = cleanRows(file: contents)
            return contents
        } catch {
            print("File Read Error for file \(filepath)")
            return nil
        }
    }


func cleanRows(file:String)->String{
    var cleanFile = file
    cleanFile = cleanFile.replacingOccurrences(of: "\r", with: "\n")
    cleanFile = cleanFile.replacingOccurrences(of: "\n\n", with: "\n")
    //        cleanFile = cleanFile.replacingOccurrences(of: ";;", with: "")
    //        cleanFile = cleanFile.replacingOccurrences(of: ";\n", with: "")
    return cleanFile
}

SOLUTION thanks to Jens Meder

using 

 func csv(data: String) -> [[String]] {
        var result: [[String]] = []
        let rows = data.components(separatedBy: "\n")
        for row in rows {
            let columns = row.components(separatedBy: ";")
            result.append(columns)
        }
        return result
    }

in viewDidLoad

var data = readDataFromCSV(fileName: kCSVFileName, fileType: kCSVFileExtension)
    data = cleanRows(file: data!)
    let csvRows = csv(data: data!)
    print(csvRows[1][1]) // UXM n. 166/167
Solution

  • What you want to do is splitting up the string in rows and then into columns (basically a two dimensional array of Strings). Swift already provides the components method for that on String structs. 

    func csv(data: String) -> [[String]] {
    var result: [[String]] = []
    let rows = data.components(separatedBy: "\n")
    for row in rows {
        let columns = row.components(separatedBy: ";")
        result.append(columns)
    }
    return result
}

    Then you can access any value via: 

    var data = readDataFromCSV(fileName: kCSVFileName, fileType: kCSVFileExtension)
data = cleanRows(file: data)
let csvRows = csv(data: data)
print(csvRows[1][1]) //UXM n. 166/167.