NAME

csv2paras - Convert CSV to paragraphs

VERSION

This document describes version 1.034 of csv2paras (from Perl distribution App-CSVUtils), released on 2024-02-02.

SYNOPSIS

csv2paras --help (or -h, -?)

csv2paras --version (or -v)

See examples in the "EXAMPLES" section.

DESCRIPTION

This utility converts CSV format like this:

name,email,phone,notes
bill,bill@example.com,555-1236,+
lisa,lisa@example.com,555-1235,from work
jimmy,jimmy@example.com,555-1237,

into paragraphs format like this, which resembles (but not strictly follows) email headers (RFC-822) or internet message headers (RFC-5322):

name: bill
email: bill@example.com
phone: 555-1236
notes: +

name: lisa
email: lisa@example.com
phone: 555-1235
notes: from work

name: jimmy
email: jimmy@example.com
phone: 555-1237
notes:

Why display in this format? It might be more visually readable or diff-able especially if there are a lot of fields and/or there are long values.

If a CSV value contains newline, it will escaped "\n", e.g.:

# CSV
name,email,phone,notes
beth,beth@example.com,555-1231,"Has no last name
Might be adopted sometime by Jimmy"
matthew,matthew@example.com,555-1239,"Quit

  or fired?"

# paragraph
name: beth
email: beth@example.com
phone: 555-1231
notes: Has no last name\nMight be adopted sometime by Jimmy

name: matthew
email: matthew@example.com
phone: 555-1239
notes: Quit\n\n  or fired?

If a CSV value contains literal "\" (backslash) it will be escaped as "\".

Long lines are also by default folded at 78 columns (but you can customize with the --width option); if a line is folded a literal backslash is added to the end of each physical line and the next line will be indented by two spaces:

notes: This is a long note. This is a long note. This is a long note. This is
  a long note. This is a long note.

A long word is also folded and the next line will be indented by one space:

notes: Thisisalongwordthisisalongwordthisisalongwordthisisalongwordthisisalongw
 ord

Newline and backslash are also escaped in header; additionally a literal ":" (colon) is escaped into "\:".

There is option to skip displaying empty fields (--hide-empty-values) and to align the ":" header separator.

Keywords: paragraphs, cards, pages, headers

OPTIONS

* marks required options.

Main options

--align

Whether to align header separator across lines.

Note that if you want to convert the paragraphs back to CSV later using paras2csv, the padding spaces added by this option will become part of header value, unless you use its --trim-header or --rtrim-header option.

--hide-empty-values

Whether to skip showing empty values.

--width=s

The width at which to fold long lines, -1 means to never fold.

Default value:

Input options

--input-escape-char=s

Specify character to escape value in field in input CSV, will be passed to Text::CSV_XS.

Defaults to \\ (backslash). Overrides --input-tsv option.

--input-filename=s

Input CSV file.

Default value:

"-"

Use - to read from stdin.

Encoding of input file is assumed to be UTF-8.

Can also be specified as the 1st command-line argument.

--input-quote-char=s

Specify field quote character in input CSV, will be passed to Text::CSV_XS.

Defaults to " (double quote). Overrides --input-tsv option.

--input-sep-char=s

Specify field separator character in input CSV, will be passed to Text::CSV_XS.

Defaults to , (comma). Overrides --input-tsv option.

--input-tsv

Inform that input file is in TSV (tab-separated) format instead of CSV.

Overriden by --input-sep-char, --input-quote-char, --input-escape-char options. If one of those options is specified, then --input-tsv will be ignored.

--no-input-header

Specify that input CSV does not have a header row.

By default, the first row of the input CSV will be assumed to contain field names (and the second row contains the first data row). When you declare that input CSV does not have header row (--no-input-header), the first row of the CSV is assumed to contain the first data row. Fields will be named field1, field2, and so on.

Logging options

--debug

Shortcut for --log-level=debug.

--log-level=s

Set log level.

By default, these log levels are available (in order of increasing level of importance, from least important to most): trace, debug, info, warn/warning, error, fatal. By default, the level is usually set to warn, which means that log statements with level info and less important levels will not be shown. To increase verbosity, choose info, debug, or trace.

For more details on log level and logging, as well as how new logging levels can be defined or existing ones modified, see Log::ger.

--quiet

Shortcut for --log-level=error.

--trace

Shortcut for --log-level=trace.

--verbose

Shortcut for --log-level=info.

Output options

--format=s

Choose output format, e.g. json, text.

Default value:

undef

Output can be displayed in multiple formats, and a suitable default format is chosen depending on the application and/or whether output destination is interactive terminal (i.e. whether output is piped). This option specifically chooses an output format.

--json

Set output format to json.

--naked-res

When outputing as JSON, strip result envelope.

Default value:

By default, when outputing as JSON, the full enveloped result is returned, e.g.:

[200,"OK",[1,2,3],{"func.extra"=>4}]

The reason is so you can get the status (1st element), status message (2nd element) as well as result metadata/extra result (4th element) instead of just the result (3rd element). However, sometimes you want just the result, e.g. when you want to pipe the result for more post-processing. In this case you can use --naked-res so you just get:

[1,2,3]

--page-result

Filter output through a pager.

This option will pipe the output to a specified pager program. If pager program is not specified, a suitable default e.g. less is chosen.

--view-result

View output using a viewer.

This option will first save the output to a temporary file, then open a viewer program to view the temporary file. If a viewer program is not chosen, a suitable default, e.g. the browser, is chosen.

Other options

--help, -h, -?: Display help message and exit.
--version, -v: Display program's version and exit.

COMPLETION

This script has shell tab completion capability with support for several shells.

bash

To activate bash completion for this script, put:

complete -C csv2paras csv2paras

in your bash startup (e.g. ~/.bashrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.

It is recommended, however, that you install modules using cpanm-shcompgen which can activate shell completion for scripts immediately.

tcsh

To activate tcsh completion for this script, put:

complete csv2paras 'p/*/`csv2paras`/'

in your tcsh startup (e.g. ~/.tcshrc). Your next shell session will then recognize tab completion for the command. Or, you can also directly execute the line above in your shell to activate immediately.

It is also recommended to install shcompgen (see above).

other shells

For fish and zsh, install shcompgen as described above.

EXAMPLES

Convert to paragraphs format, show fields alphabetically, do not fold, hide empty values

% csv-sort-fields INPUT.csv | csv2paras --width=-1 --hide-empty-values

HOMEPAGE

Please visit the project's homepage at https://metacpan.org/release/App-CSVUtils.

SOURCE

Source repository is at https://github.com/perlancar/perl-App-CSVUtils.

AUTHOR

perlancar <perlancar@cpan.org>

CONTRIBUTING

To contribute, you can send patches by email/via RT, or send pull requests on GitHub.

Most of the time, you don't need to build the distribution yourself. You can simply modify the code, then test via:

% prove -l

If you want to build the distribution (e.g. to try to install it locally on your system), you can install Dist::Zilla, Dist::Zilla::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, Pod::Weaver::PluginBundle::Author::PERLANCAR, and sometimes one or two other Dist::Zilla- and/or Pod::Weaver plugins. Any additional steps required beyond that are considered a bug and can be reported to me.

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

BUGS

Please report any bugs or feature requests on the bugtracker website https://rt.cpan.org/Public/Dist/Display.html?Name=App-CSVUtils

When submitting a bug or request, please include a test-file or a patch to an existing test-file that illustrates the bug or desired feature.

To install App::CSVUtils, copy and paste the appropriate command in to your terminal.

cpanm

cpanm App::CSVUtils

CPAN shell

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install App::CSVUtils

For more information on module installation, please visit the detailed CPAN module installation guide.

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NAME

VERSION

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

Main options

Input options

Logging options

Output options

Other options

COMPLETION

bash

tcsh

other shells

EXAMPLES

Convert to paragraphs format, show fields alphabetically, do not fold, hide empty values

HOMEPAGE

SOURCE

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR

CONTRIBUTING

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

BUGS

Module Install Instructions