csv2paras - Convert CSV to paragraphs
This document describes version 1.034 of csv2paras (from Perl distribution App-CSVUtils), released on 2024-02-02.
csv2paras --help (or -h, -?)
csv2paras --version (or -v)
csv2paras [--align|--no-align|--noalign] [--debug|--log-level=level|--quiet|--trace|--verbose] [--format=name|--json] [--hide-empty-values|--no-hide-empty-values|--nohide-empty-values] [--input-escape-char=str] [--input-header|--no-input-header|--noinput-header] [--input-quote-char=str] [--input-sep-char=str] [--input-tsv] [--(no)naked-res] [--page-result[=program]|--view-result[=program]] [--width=int] -- [input_filename]
See examples in the "EXAMPLES" section.
This utility converts CSV format like this:
name,email,phone,notes bill,bill@example.com,555-1236,+ lisa,lisa@example.com,555-1235,from work jimmy,jimmy@example.com,555-1237,
into paragraphs format like this, which resembles (but not strictly follows) email headers (RFC-822) or internet message headers (RFC-5322):
name: bill email: bill@example.com phone: 555-1236 notes: + name: lisa email: lisa@example.com phone: 555-1235 notes: from work name: jimmy email: jimmy@example.com phone: 555-1237 notes:
Why display in this format? It might be more visually readable or diff-able especially if there are a lot of fields and/or there are long values.
If a CSV value contains newline, it will escaped "\n", e.g.:
# CSV name,email,phone,notes beth,beth@example.com,555-1231,"Has no last name Might be adopted sometime by Jimmy" matthew,matthew@example.com,555-1239,"Quit or fired?" # paragraph name: beth email: beth@example.com phone: 555-1231 notes: Has no last name\nMight be adopted sometime by Jimmy name: matthew email: matthew@example.com phone: 555-1239 notes: Quit\n\n or fired?
If a CSV value contains literal "\" (backslash) it will be escaped as "\".
Long lines are also by default folded at 78 columns (but you can customize with the --width option); if a line is folded a literal backslash is added to the end of each physical line and the next line will be indented by two spaces:
--width
notes: This is a long note. This is a long note. This is a long note. This is a long note. This is a long note.
A long word is also folded and the next line will be indented by one space:
notes: Thisisalongwordthisisalongwordthisisalongwordthisisalongwordthisisalongw ord
Newline and backslash are also escaped in header; additionally a literal ":" (colon) is escaped into "\:".
There is option to skip displaying empty fields (--hide-empty-values) and to align the ":" header separator.
--hide-empty-values
Keywords: paragraphs, cards, pages, headers
* marks required options.
*
Whether to align header separator across lines.
Note that if you want to convert the paragraphs back to CSV later using paras2csv, the padding spaces added by this option will become part of header value, unless you use its --trim-header or --rtrim-header option.
--trim-header
--rtrim-header
Whether to skip showing empty values.
The width at which to fold long lines, -1 means to never fold.
Default value:
78
Specify character to escape value in field in input CSV, will be passed to Text::CSV_XS.
Defaults to \\ (backslash). Overrides --input-tsv option.
\\
--input-tsv
Input CSV file.
"-"
Use - to read from stdin.
-
Encoding of input file is assumed to be UTF-8.
Can also be specified as the 1st command-line argument.
Specify field quote character in input CSV, will be passed to Text::CSV_XS.
Defaults to " (double quote). Overrides --input-tsv option.
"
Specify field separator character in input CSV, will be passed to Text::CSV_XS.
Defaults to , (comma). Overrides --input-tsv option.
,
Inform that input file is in TSV (tab-separated) format instead of CSV.
Overriden by --input-sep-char, --input-quote-char, --input-escape-char options. If one of those options is specified, then --input-tsv will be ignored.
--input-sep-char
--input-quote-char
--input-escape-char
Specify that input CSV does not have a header row.
By default, the first row of the input CSV will be assumed to contain field names (and the second row contains the first data row). When you declare that input CSV does not have header row (--no-input-header), the first row of the CSV is assumed to contain the first data row. Fields will be named field1, field2, and so on.
--no-input-header
field1
field2
Shortcut for --log-level=debug.
Set log level.
By default, these log levels are available (in order of increasing level of importance, from least important to most): trace, debug, info, warn/warning, error, fatal. By default, the level is usually set to warn, which means that log statements with level info and less important levels will not be shown. To increase verbosity, choose info, debug, or trace.
trace
debug
info
warn
warning
error
fatal
For more details on log level and logging, as well as how new logging levels can be defined or existing ones modified, see Log::ger.
Shortcut for --log-level=error.
Shortcut for --log-level=trace.
Shortcut for --log-level=info.
Choose output format, e.g. json, text.
undef
Output can be displayed in multiple formats, and a suitable default format is chosen depending on the application and/or whether output destination is interactive terminal (i.e. whether output is piped). This option specifically chooses an output format.
Set output format to json.
When outputing as JSON, strip result envelope.
0
By default, when outputing as JSON, the full enveloped result is returned, e.g.:
[200,"OK",[1,2,3],{"func.extra"=>4}]
The reason is so you can get the status (1st element), status message (2nd element) as well as result metadata/extra result (4th element) instead of just the result (3rd element). However, sometimes you want just the result, e.g. when you want to pipe the result for more post-processing. In this case you can use --naked-res so you just get:
--naked-res
[1,2,3]
Filter output through a pager.
This option will pipe the output to a specified pager program. If pager program is not specified, a suitable default e.g. less is chosen.
less
View output using a viewer.
This option will first save the output to a temporary file, then open a viewer program to view the temporary file. If a viewer program is not chosen, a suitable default, e.g. the browser, is chosen.
Display help message and exit.
Display program's version and exit.
This script has shell tab completion capability with support for several shells.
To activate bash completion for this script, put:
complete -C csv2paras csv2paras
in your bash startup (e.g. ~/.bashrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.
It is recommended, however, that you install modules using cpanm-shcompgen which can activate shell completion for scripts immediately.
To activate tcsh completion for this script, put:
complete csv2paras 'p/*/`csv2paras`/'
in your tcsh startup (e.g. ~/.tcshrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.
It is also recommended to install shcompgen (see above).
For fish and zsh, install shcompgen as described above.
% csv-sort-fields INPUT.csv | csv2paras --width=-1 --hide-empty-values
Please visit the project's homepage at https://metacpan.org/release/App-CSVUtils.
Source repository is at https://github.com/perlancar/perl-App-CSVUtils.
paras2csv.
perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>
To contribute, you can send patches by email/via RT, or send pull requests on GitHub.
Most of the time, you don't need to build the distribution yourself. You can simply modify the code, then test via:
% prove -l
If you want to build the distribution (e.g. to try to install it locally on your system), you can install Dist::Zilla, Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, Pod::Weaver::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, and sometimes one or two other Dist::Zilla- and/or Pod::Weaver plugins. Any additional steps required beyond that are considered a bug and can be reported to me.
This software is copyright (c) 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016 by perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>.
This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.
Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=App-CSVUtils
When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.
To install App::CSVUtils, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.
cpanm
cpanm App::CSVUtils
CPAN shell
perl -MCPAN -e shell install App::CSVUtils
For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.