csv-extract

Extract data from CSV files.

csv-extract is optimized to work with large CSV files.

Uses a readable stream to process the input file line by line.

  ____ ______     __  _____      _                  _
 / ___/ ___\ \   / / | ____|_  _| |_ _ __ __ _  ___| |_
| |   \___ \\ \ / /  |  _| \ \/ / __| '__/ _` |/ __| __|
| |___ ___) |\ V /   | |___ >  <| |_| | | (_| | (__| |_
 \____|____/  \_/    |_____/_/\_\\__|_|  \__,_|\___|\__|

Install

This is a CLI tool so you can install it globally with:

npm i -g csv-extract

Or you can just run it without installion:

npx csv-extract [options]

Usage

  Usage: csv-extract [options]

  Commands:
    help     Display help
    version  Display version

  Options:
    -c, --csv              CSV file to read (required)
    -d, --divider [value]  Data divider (defaults to ",")
    -f, --filters          JSON file with filters to apply (required)
    -F, --format [value]   Output format (json or csv) (defaults to "json")
    -h, --help             Output usage information
    -l, --maxLines <n>     Maximum number of lines to read, unlimited when unset (defaults to null)
    -r, --maxResults <n>   Maximum number of results to return, unlimited when unset (defaults to null)
    -o, --output           Output file where results will be stored
    -v, --version          Output the version number

Example

csv-extract -c large-data-sample.csv -f filters-2023.json

Filters

We use filters to find specific data inside large CSV files.

Filters are provided in JSON format, where every key belong to a CSV header and every value matches CSV data.

For example, given this CSV data:

id,name,email
1337,Awesome Dude,[e-mail]
86,Someone Else,[e-mail]

We can retrieve the first data item using this filter:

{
  "id": "1337"
}

By default all CSV data items are converted to strings, so keep that in mind when writing filters.

Regex

We can also use regex filters.

For example, to get the same data as before:

{
  "email": {
    "regex": "selse.*"
  }
}

Multiple filters

Just add more properties to the filters document.

Let's try with another data sample.

id,name,instrument,birthday
1,Bruce,vocals,1958-08
2,Steve,bass,1956-03
3,Adrian,guitar,1957-02
4,Dave,guitar,1956-12
5,Nicko,drums,1952-06
6,Janick,guitar,1957-01

Create a filter to find everyone who was born in 1956 and plays the bass:

{
  "instrument": "bass",
  "birthday": {
    "regex": "1956.*"
  }
}

By default you'll get a JSON document:

[
  {
    "id": "2",
    "name": "Steve",
    "instrument": "bass",
    "birthday": "1956-03"
  }
]

If you use CSV output with -F csv you'll get:

id,name,instrument,birthday
2,Steve,bass,1956-03