Csv ActiveX Reference Documentation

Csv

Current Version: 9.5.0.97

A class for reading and updating CSV files. Provides methods for accessing cell contents by name or index, updating cells, reading and setting column names, etc.

Object Creation

(ASP)
set obj = Server.CreateObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.Csv")

(AutoIt)
$obj = ObjCreate("Chilkat_9_5_0.Csv")

(Visual Basic 6.0)
Dim obj As New ChilkatCsv

(VBScript)
set obj = CreateObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.Csv")

(Delphi)
obj := TChilkatCsv.Create(Self);

(FoxPro)
loObject = CreateObject('Chilkat_9_5_0.Csv')

(PowerBuilder)
lole_object = create oleobject
li_rc = lole_object.ConnectToNewObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.Csv")

(SQL Server)
EXEC @hr = sp_OACreate 'Chilkat_9_5_0.Csv', @obj OUT

(Javascript)
var obj = new ActiveXObject("Chilkat_9_5_0.Csv");

Properties

AutoTrim
AutoTrim As Long

If 1, then the strings returned by GetCell and GetCellByName are auto-trimmed of whitespace from both ends.

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Crlf
Crlf As Long

If 1, then CRLF line endings are used when saving the CSV to a file or to a string (i.e. for the methods SaveFile, SaveFile2, SaveToString). If 0 then bare LF line-endings are used.

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DebugLogFilePath
DebugLogFilePath As String

If set to a file path, causes each Chilkat method or property call to automatically append it's LastErrorText to the specified log file. The information is appended such that if a hang or crash occurs, it is possible to see the context in which the problem occurred, as well as a history of all Chilkat calls up to the point of the problem. The VerboseLogging property can be set to provide more detailed information.

This property is typically used for debugging the rare cases where a Chilkat method call hangs or generates an exception that halts program execution (i.e. crashes). A hang or crash should generally never happen. The typical causes of a hang are:

  1. a timeout related property was set to 0 to explicitly indicate that an infinite timeout is desired,
  2. the hang is actually a hang within an event callback (i.e. it is a hang within the application code), or
  3. there is an internal problem (bug) in the Chilkat code that causes the hang.

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Delimiter
Delimiter As String

The character that separates fields in a record. It is a comma by default. If the Delimiter property is not explicitly set, the CSV component will detect the delimiter when loading a CSV. (Semicolons are typically used in locales where the comma is used as a decimal point.)

Note 1: If the default comma delimiter is not desired when creating a new CSV, make sure to set this property before adding rows/columns to the CSV.

Note 2: If the application explicitly sets the delimiter to the vertical bar character ("|"), and if the EnableQuotes property was never explicitly set, then EnableQuotes will default to 0. This is because when vertical bars are used, quotes are most likely to be treated the same as other characters.

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EnableQuotes
EnableQuotes As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.71

If 1, then the double-quote characters cause the quoted content, including CR's, LF's, and delimiter chars to be treated as normal text when reading/writing CSVs. The default is 1.

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EscapeBackslash
EscapeBackslash As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.44

If 1, then the backslash character is treated as an escape character when reading/writing CSVs. The default is 0.

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HasColumnNames
HasColumnNames As Long

Set to 1 prior to loading a CSV if the 1st record contains column names. This allows the CSV parser to correctly load the column names and not treat them as data.

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LastBinaryResult
LastBinaryResult As Variant (read-only)

The binary data returned by the last (binary data returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepBinaryResult is set to 1. This provides a means for obtaining large varbinary results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting large amounts of data returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for binary properties).

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LastErrorHtml
LastErrorHtml As String (read-only)

Provides information in HTML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorText
LastErrorText As String (read-only)

Provides information in plain-text format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastErrorXml
LastErrorXml As String (read-only)

Provides information in XML format about the last method/property called. If a method call returns a value indicating failure, or behaves unexpectedly, examine this property to get more information.

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LastMethodSuccess
LastMethodSuccess As Long

Indicate whether the last method call succeeded or failed. A value of 1 indicates success, a value of 0 indicates failure. This property is automatically set for method calls. It is not modified by property accesses. The property is automatically set to indicate success for the following types of method calls:

  • Any method that returns a string.
  • Any method returning a Chilkat object, binary bytes, or a date/time.
  • Any method returning a standard boolean status value where success = 1 and failure = 0.
  • Any method returning an integer where failure is defined by a return value less than zero.

Note: Methods that do not fit the above requirements will always set this property equal to 1. For example, a method that returns no value (such as a "void" in C++) will technically always succeed.

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LastStringResult
LastStringResult As String (read-only)

The string return value of the last (string returning) method called. Only available if Chilkat.Global.KeepStringResult is set to 1. This provides a means for obtaining large string results in the SQL Server environment (where limitations exist in getting long strings returned by method calls, but where temp tables can be used for string properties).

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LastStringResultLen
LastStringResultLen As Long (read-only)

The length, in characters, of the string contained in the LastStringResult property.

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NumColumns
NumColumns As Long (read-only)

The number of columns in the 1st row, which may be the row containing column names if HasColumnNames is 1.

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NumRows
NumRows As Long (read-only)

The number of data rows. If the CSV has column names, the 1st row is not included in the count. Also, empty lines containing only whitespace characters that follow the last non-empty row are not included.

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UncommonOptions
UncommonOptions As String
Introduced in version 9.5.0.88

This is a catch-all property to be used for uncommon needs. Chilkat may from time to time define keywords, which if present, change behavior in some way. If multiple keywords are needed, set this property to the comma separated list of keywords.

The following keywords are defined:

  • QuotedCells (v9.5.0.96) Forces all cell contents to be double-quoted when emitting the CSV to a file or string
  • QuotedColumnNames (v9.5.0.96) Forces all column names to be double-quoted when emitting the CSV to a file or string
  • EMIT_BOM (v9.5.0.93) Causes Chilkat to emit the utf-8 BOM (byte order mark) when writing the CSV to a file (assuming the CSV is written using utf-8).

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VerboseLogging
VerboseLogging As Long

If set to 1, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is 0. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
Version As String (read-only)

Version of the component/library, such as "9.5.0.94"

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Methods

DeleteColumn
DeleteColumn(ByVal index As Long) As Long

Deletes the Nth column. (The 1st column is at index 0.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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DeleteColumnByName
DeleteColumnByName(columnName As String) As Long

Deletes a column specified by name.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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DeleteRow
DeleteRow(ByVal index As Long) As Long

Deletes the entire Nth row. (The 1st row is at index 0.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetCell
GetCell(ByVal row As Long, ByVal col As Long) As String

Returns the contents of the cell at row, col. Indexing begins at 0. (The topmost/leftmost cell is at 0,0)

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetCellByName
GetCellByName(ByVal rowIndex As Long, columnName As String) As String

The same as GetCell, but the column is specified by name instead of by index.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetColumnName
GetColumnName(ByVal index As Long) As String

Returns the name of the Nth column.

Returns Nothing on failure

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GetIndex
GetIndex(columnName As String) As Long

Returns the column index for a given column. Returns -1 if no column exists with the columnName.

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GetNumCols
GetNumCols(ByVal row As Long) As Long

Returns the number of columns for a specific row. If the row is larger than the number of rows in the CSV, a zero is returned.

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InsertColumn
InsertColumn(ByVal index As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.89

Inserts a new and empty column before the Nth column. (The 1st column is at index 0.)

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFile
LoadFile(path As String) As Long

Loads a CSV from a file. It is assumed that the CSV file contains ANSI characters.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFile2
LoadFile2(filename As String, charset As String) As Long

Loads a CSV from a file. The charset specifies the character encoding of the CSV file. A list of supported character encodings may be found on this page: Supported Charsets.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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LoadFromString
LoadFromString(csvData As String) As Long

Loads a CSV document from an in-memory string variable.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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RowMatches
RowMatches(ByVal rowIndex As Long, matchPattern As String, ByVal caseSensitive As Long) As Long

Compares the contents of an entire row to a wildcarded match pattern where "*" can be used any number of times to match 0 or more of any character. Returns 1 if a match was found, otherwise returns 0. If caseSensitive is 1, then the pattern match is case sensitive, otherwise it is case insensitive.

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SaveFile
SaveFile(path As String) As Long

Saves a CSV to a file. The output file is written using the ANSI character encoding.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SaveFile2
SaveFile2(filename As String, charset As String) As Long

Saves a CSV to a file. The charset specifies the character encoding to use for the CSV file. The text data is converted to this charset when saving. A list of supported character encodings may be found on this page: Supported Charsets.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SaveToSb
SaveToSb(sb As ChilkatStringBuilder) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.93

Clears the contents of sb and writes the entire CSV into sb.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SaveToString
SaveToString() As String

Returns the entire CSV as a string.

Returns Nothing on failure

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SetCell
SetCell(ByVal row As Long, ByVal col As Long, content As String) As Long

Sets the contents for a single cell in the CSV. The content may include any characters including CRLF's, double-quotes, and the delimiter character. The Save* methods automatically double-quote fields with special chars when saving. The Load* methods automatically parse double-quoted and/or escaped fields correctly when loading.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SetCellByName
SetCellByName(ByVal rowIndex As Long, columnName As String, contentStr As String) As Long

The same as SetCell, except the column is specified by name instead of by index.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SetColumnName
SetColumnName(ByVal index As Long, columnName As String) As Long

Sets the name of the Nth column. The first column is at index 0. This method would only return 0 if an invalid index is passed (such as a negative number).

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SortByColumn
SortByColumn(columnName As String, ByVal ascending As Long, ByVal caseSensitive As Long) As Long

Sorts the rows in the CSV by the contents of a specific column. If ascending is 1, the sort is in ascending order, otherwise descending order. If caseSensitive is 1 then the sorting is case sensitive.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SortByColumnIndex
SortByColumnIndex(ByVal index As Long, ByVal ascending As Long, ByVal caseSensitive As Long) As Long
Introduced in version 9.5.0.83

Sorts the rows in the CSV by the contents of a specific column index. If ascending is 1, the sort is in ascending order, otherwise descending order. If caseSensitive is 1 then the sorting is case sensitive.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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