Csv Objective-C Reference Documentation

CkoCsv

Current Version: 10.1.2

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

CkoCsv *obj = [[CkoCsv alloc] init];

Properties

AutoTrim
@property (nonatomic) BOOL AutoTrim;

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

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Crlf
@property (nonatomic) BOOL Crlf;

If YES, 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 NO then bare LF line-endings are used.

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DebugLogFilePath
@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *DebugLogFilePath;

If set to a file path, this property logs the LastErrorText of each Chilkat method or property call to the specified file. This logging helps identify the context and history of Chilkat calls leading up to any crash or hang, aiding in debugging.

Enabling the VerboseLogging property provides more detailed information. This property is mainly used for debugging rare instances where a Chilkat method call causes a hang or crash, which should generally not happen.

Possible causes of hangs include:

  • A timeout property set to 0, indicating an infinite timeout.
  • A hang occurring within an event callback in the application code.
  • An internal bug in the Chilkat code causing the hang.

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Delimiter
@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *Delimiter;

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 NO. 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
@property (nonatomic) BOOL EnableQuotes;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.71

If YES, 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 YES.

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EscapeBackslash
@property (nonatomic) BOOL EscapeBackslash;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.44

If YES, then the backslash character is treated as an escape character when reading/writing CSVs. The default is NO.

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HasColumnNames
@property (nonatomic) BOOL HasColumnNames;

Set to YES 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
@property (nonatomic, readonly, copy) NSString *LastErrorHtml;

Provides HTML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorText
@property (nonatomic, readonly, copy) NSString *LastErrorText;

Provides plain text information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastErrorXml
@property (nonatomic, readonly, copy) NSString *LastErrorXml;

Provides XML-formatted information about the last called method or property. If a method call fails or behaves unexpectedly, check this property for details. Note that information is available regardless of the method call's success.

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LastMethodSuccess
@property (nonatomic) BOOL LastMethodSuccess;

Indicates the success or failure of the most recent method call: YES means success, NO means failure. This property remains unchanged by property setters or getters. This method is present to address challenges in checking for null or Nothing returns in certain programming languages.

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NumColumns
@property (nonatomic, readonly, copy) NSNumber *NumColumns;

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

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NumRows
@property (nonatomic, readonly, copy) NSNumber *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
@property (nonatomic, copy) NSString *UncommonOptions;
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
@property (nonatomic) BOOL VerboseLogging;

If set to YES, then the contents of LastErrorText (or LastErrorXml, or LastErrorHtml) may contain more verbose information. The default value is NO. Verbose logging should only be used for debugging. The potentially large quantity of logged information may adversely affect peformance.

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Version
@property (nonatomic, readonly, copy) NSString *Version;

Version of the component/library, such as "10.1.0"

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Methods

DeleteColumn
- (BOOL)DeleteColumn:(NSNumber *)index;

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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DeleteColumnByName
- (BOOL)DeleteColumnByName:(NSString *)columnName;

Deletes a column specified by name.

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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DeleteRow
- (BOOL)DeleteRow:(NSNumber *)index;

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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GetCell
- (NSString *)GetCell:(NSNumber *)row
    col:(NSNumber *)col;

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

Returns nil on failure

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GetCellByName
- (NSString *)GetCellByName:(NSNumber *)row
    columnName:(NSString *)columnName;

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

Returns nil on failure

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GetColumnName
- (NSString *)GetColumnName:(NSNumber *)index;

Returns the name of the Nth column.

Returns nil on failure

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GetIndex
- (NSNumber *)GetIndex:(NSString *)columnName;

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

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GetNumCols
- (NSNumber *)GetNumCols:(NSNumber *)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
- (BOOL)InsertColumn:(NSNumber *)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 YES for success, NO for failure.

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LoadFile
- (BOOL)LoadFile:(NSString *)path;

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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LoadFile2
- (BOOL)LoadFile2:(NSString *)path
    charset:(NSString *)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 YES for success, NO for failure.

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LoadFromString
- (BOOL)LoadFromString:(NSString *)csvData;

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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RowMatches
- (BOOL)RowMatches:(NSNumber *)row
    matchPattern:(NSString *)matchPattern
    bCaseSensitive:(BOOL)bCaseSensitive;

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 YES if a match was found, otherwise returns NO. If caseSensitive is YES, then the pattern match is case sensitive, otherwise it is case insensitive.

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SaveFile
- (BOOL)SaveFile:(NSString *)path;

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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SaveFile2
- (BOOL)SaveFile2:(NSString *)path
    charset:(NSString *)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 YES for success, NO for failure.

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SaveToSb
- (BOOL)SaveToSb:(CkoStringBuilder *)sb;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.93

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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SaveToString
- (NSString *)SaveToString;

Returns the entire CSV as a string.

Returns nil on failure

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SetCell
- (BOOL)SetCell:(NSNumber *)row
    col:(NSNumber *)col
    content:(NSString *)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 YES for success, NO for failure.

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SetCellByName
- (BOOL)SetCellByName:(NSNumber *)row
    columnName:(NSString *)columnName
    content:(NSString *)content;

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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SetColumnName
- (BOOL)SetColumnName:(NSNumber *)index
    columnName:(NSString *)columnName;

Sets the name of the Nth column. The first column is at index 0. This method would only return NO if an invalid index is passed (such as a negative number).

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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SortByColumn
- (BOOL)SortByColumn:(NSString *)columnName
    bAscending:(BOOL)bAscending
    bCaseSensitive:(BOOL)bCaseSensitive;

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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SortByColumnIndex
- (BOOL)SortByColumnIndex:(NSNumber *)index
    bAscending:(BOOL)bAscending
    bCaseSensitive:(BOOL)bCaseSensitive;
Introduced in version 9.5.0.83

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

Returns YES for success, NO for failure.

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