Parsing through CSV to get specific name/value pairs

[Gazthrak]

Hello,

I have a task that could be made much easier if I built a simple tool to parse through a CSV data pasted in a text area and it spits out specific the parts the name/value pairs I need. I do not have the luxury of a database and the data is a bit sensitive or else I would not be needing your fantastic assistance and I would have churned out some server-side magic.

Anyway, what is tripping me up is the necessity for regular expressions (and my lack of experience in this area in general), which can drive a man to drink. I can work with the code to get the specific parts I need and manipulate what is spit out to my specifications but its the starting point that I need help with.

I pasted a sample section of the data I need to parse through. I am pretty sure I can work with the data once it gets split into an array that can be searched through.

I appreciate any assistance on this matter.

col1
col2,col3,col4,col5,col6
"head1",
"cat1",1.58000%,000.10,2,724.11,11.64,
"cat2",2.95000%,000.10,1,150.00,4.53,
"cat3",1.73000%,000.10,3,1695.42,29.62,
"cat4",1.05000%,000.15,5,589.79,6.95,
"head2",
"cat5",1.54000%,000.10,4,1400.08,21.96,
"cat6",1.65000%,000.10,5,3287.84,54.74,
"cat7",2.20000%,000.10,2,5030.40,110.86,
"cat8",2.30000%,000.10,1,202.48,4.75,
"cat9",1.20000%,000.00,1,834.46,10.01,
"cat10",0.95000%,000.20,3,83.86,1.39,
"cat11",1.75000%,000.20,3,729.18,13.36,
"total",,,,,269.81,

[JMRKER]

You're text file does not look like a true CSV file.

It appears you define col1-col6, but you have 7 cols of text without a end "\n"
or a "Head#" that does not define enough columns of data.

What kind of information are you trying to parse out of the text file?
Are the rows ending with a '\n' or a ',' character?
Can you provide a bit more information about the data you have?

[Chipzzz]

As you observe, the operative word here is 'split' . Try this:

function makeCsvArray(text) {
  var rows, i;
  var cols = Array();
  rows = text.split('\n');
  for (i=0; i<rows.length; i++) {
    cols[i] = rows[i].split(',');
  }
  return cols;
}

var csvArray = makeCsvArray(textField);

Have fun.