csv2json

Clients were sending me XLS files, but my webs consume JSON. So I needed to convert them to JSON easily from command-line. Tried to google for solution and surprisingly enough nothing solid existed.

Solution

• export XLS as a CSV file (I use OpenOffice.org for this)
• run csv2json file.csv > file.json
• there is no step 3

Sample

note: make sure your XLS table has the first row with column names

This CSV file:

thumbpath,imgpath,imgsrc,width,height,thumbsrc,thumbwidth,thumbheight
thumbnails/,images/,paris_01.jpg,350,262,paris_01.jpg,75,56
thumbnails/,images/,paris_02.jpg,262,350,paris_02.jpg,75,56

gets turned into this JSON:

[
  {
    "thumbwidth": 75,
    "imgsrc": "paris_01.jpg",
    "thumbsrc": "paris_01.jpg",
    "height": 262,
    "imgpath": "images/",
    "thumbheight": 56,
    "thumbpath": "thumbnails/",
    "width": 350
  },
  {
    "thumbwidth": 75,
    "imgsrc": "paris_02.jpg",
    "thumbsrc": "paris_02.jpg",
    "height": 350,
    "imgpath": "images/",
    "thumbheight": 56,
    "thumbpath": "thumbnails/",
    "width": 262
  }
]

Installation

sudo gem install csv2json --source http://gemcutter.org

Usage

Usage: csv2json [INPUT] [OPTIONS]

Specific options:
    -o, --output FILE                Write output to a file
    -h, --help                       Show this message
    -v, --version                    Show version

Alternative usage

common usage is csv2json file.csv > file.json

csv2json should behave like proper unix command-line utility working with pipes, redirects, etc.

cat file.csv | csv2json | gzip > file.json.gz

Usage as a library

with files

require 'csv2json'

File.open('input.csv', 'r') do |input|
    File.open('output.json', 'w') do |output|
        CSV2JSON.parse(input, output)
    end
end

or in-memory

require 'csv2json'

input = StringIO.new(csv_string)
output = StringIO.new()
CSV2JSON.parse(input, output)

output.pos = 0
puts output.read

Want to contribute?

• Fork the project.
• Make your feature addition or bug fix.
• Add tests for it. This is important so I don't break it in a future version unintentionally.
• Commit, do not mess with rakefile, version, or history. (if you want to have your own version, that is fine but bump version in a commit by itself I can ignore when I pull)
• Send me a pull request. Bonus points for topic branches.

Copyright

Copyright (c) 2009 Antonin Hildebrand. See LICENSE for details.

Check out http://binaryage.com