CkCsv Perl Reference Documentation

CkCsv

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

$obj = chilkat::CkCsv->new();

Properties

AutoTrim
# $boolVal is a boolean
$boolVal = $csv->get_AutoTrim();
$csv->put_AutoTrim($boolVal);

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

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Crlf
# $boolVal is a boolean
$boolVal = $csv->get_Crlf();
$csv->put_Crlf($boolVal);

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
# $strVal is a string
# $ckStr is a CkString
$csv->get_DebugLogFilePath($ckStr);
$strVal = $csv->debugLogFilePath();
$csv->put_DebugLogFilePath($strVal);

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
# $strVal is a string
# $ckStr is a CkString
$csv->get_Delimiter($ckStr);
$strVal = $csv->delimiter();
$csv->put_Delimiter($strVal);

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
# $boolVal is a boolean
$boolVal = $csv->get_EnableQuotes();
$csv->put_EnableQuotes($boolVal);
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
# $boolVal is a boolean
$boolVal = $csv->get_EscapeBackslash();
$csv->put_EscapeBackslash($boolVal);
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
# $boolVal is a boolean
$boolVal = $csv->get_HasColumnNames();
$csv->put_HasColumnNames($boolVal);

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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LastErrorHtml
# $strVal is a string
# $ckStr is a CkString
$csv->get_LastErrorHtml($ckStr);
$strVal = $csv->lastErrorHtml();

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
# $strVal is a string
# $ckStr is a CkString
$csv->get_LastErrorText($ckStr);
$strVal = $csv->lastErrorText();

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
# $strVal is a string
# $ckStr is a CkString
$csv->get_LastErrorXml($ckStr);
$strVal = $csv->lastErrorXml();

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
# $boolVal is a boolean
$boolVal = $csv->get_LastMethodSuccess();
$csv->put_LastMethodSuccess($boolVal);

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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NumColumns
# $intVal is an integer
$intVal = $csv->get_NumColumns();

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
# $intVal is an integer
$intVal = $csv->get_NumRows();

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
# $strVal is a string
# $ckStr is a CkString
$csv->get_UncommonOptions($ckStr);
$strVal = $csv->uncommonOptions();
$csv->put_UncommonOptions($strVal);
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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Utf8
# $boolVal is a boolean
$boolVal = $csv->get_Utf8();
$csv->put_Utf8($boolVal);

When set to 1, all "const char *" arguments are interpreted as utf-8 strings. If set to 0 (the default), then "const char *" arguments are interpreted as ANSI strings. Also, when set to 1, and Chilkat method returning a "const char *" is returning the utf-8 representation. If set to 0, all "const char *" return values are ANSI strings.

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VerboseLogging
# $boolVal is a boolean
$boolVal = $csv->get_VerboseLogging();
$csv->put_VerboseLogging($boolVal);

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
# $strVal is a string
# $ckStr is a CkString
$csv->get_Version($ckStr);
$strVal = $csv->version();

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

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Methods

DeleteColumn
# $index is an integer
$status = $csv->DeleteColumn($index);

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

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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DeleteColumnByName
# $columnName is a string
$status = $csv->DeleteColumnByName($columnName);

Deletes a column specified by name.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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DeleteRow
# $index is an integer
$status = $csv->DeleteRow($index);

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

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetCell
# $row is an integer
# $col is an integer
# $outStr is a CkString (output)
$status = $csv->GetCell($row, $col, $outStr);
$retStr = $csv->getCell($row, $col);

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

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetCellByName
# $rowIndex is an integer
# $columnName is a string
# $outStr is a CkString (output)
$status = $csv->GetCellByName($rowIndex, $columnName, $outStr);
$retStr = $csv->getCellByName($rowIndex, $columnName);

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

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetColumnName
# $index is an integer
# $outStr is a CkString (output)
$status = $csv->GetColumnName($index, $outStr);
$retStr = $csv->getColumnName($index);

Returns the name of the Nth column.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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GetIndex
# $columnName is a string
$retInt = $csv->GetIndex($columnName);

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

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GetNumCols
# $row is an integer
$retInt = $csv->GetNumCols($row);

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
# $index is an integer
$status = $csv->InsertColumn($index);
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
# $path is a string
$status = $csv->LoadFile($path);

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
# $filename is a string
# $charset is a string
$status = $csv->LoadFile2($filename, $charset);

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
# $csvData is a string
$status = $csv->LoadFromString($csvData);

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

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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RowMatches
# $rowIndex is an integer
# $matchPattern is a string
# $caseSensitive is a boolean
$retBool = $csv->RowMatches($rowIndex, $matchPattern, $caseSensitive);

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
# $path is a string
$status = $csv->SaveFile($path);

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
# $filename is a string
# $charset is a string
$status = $csv->SaveFile2($filename, $charset);

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
# $sb is a CkStringBuilder
$status = $csv->SaveToSb($sb);
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
# $outStr is a CkString (output)
$status = $csv->SaveToString($outStr);
$retStr = $csv->saveToString();

Returns the entire CSV as a string.

Returns 1 for success, 0 for failure.

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SetCell
# $row is an integer
# $col is an integer
# $content is a string
$status = $csv->SetCell($row, $col, $content);

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
# $rowIndex is an integer
# $columnName is a string
# $contentStr is a string
$status = $csv->SetCellByName($rowIndex, $columnName, $contentStr);

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
# $index is an integer
# $columnName is a string
$status = $csv->SetColumnName($index, $columnName);

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
# $columnName is a string
# $ascending is a boolean
# $caseSensitive is a boolean
$status = $csv->SortByColumn($columnName, $ascending, $caseSensitive);

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
# $index is an integer
# $ascending is a boolean
# $caseSensitive is a boolean
$status = $csv->SortByColumnIndex($index, $ascending, $caseSensitive);
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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