Reading lines on a csv file

Ok i understand now that the row numbers are part of the file.

In that case, do something like use grep to them out of the line find:^.*,(.*,.*\r)$ or maybe use firstIndexOf(',') to start the slice after the first comma.

Here is the full code, it copies files from one place to another (on Mac), you choose a file type to copy (extension type), the folder to search, a folder to copy too and the csv file with the names (minus extension). I use it at work when files are requested so I do not have to manually select hundreds of them. It works great but I just wanted to be able to read the lines without having to have the "Rows" column, it seems unnecessary but I can't find any code to get started.

• The excelVal is to run a function Jongware, was thinking "rowHd = "R"+Num" may be replaced to make it work but judging from the replies it may be a bigger change.

• I am looking at the "directly from Excel" code at the moment Kasyan to see how I can use it.

• It would be very handy to work from xlsx-file instead of a csv file Mike, do you have a working example of that code that I can go from as it's the "//read csv" is where I'm stuck

The full script is below to put it in context, I work on Mac.

    // Copy files to another folder using a csv file list

        alert("To copy files to a folder using a csv file list\r"

                +"Set up a CSV file as the example below:\r"

                +"  Rows     Number\r"

                +"     R1           266\r"

                +"     R2           301\r"

                +"     R3           502\r"

                +"   etc.\r"

                +"(All files to be copied must be in the same folder)"

               ) // Instruction sheet

    //Dialog to set variables

        var fileName = File.openDialog("Select a File with the correct extention to copy") // or var fileName = "_Education_2018.pdf" // File name minus the number

              fileName = fileName.name.replace( RegExp("^.*(?=\\.)") , "" ) // Deletes the number at the start of the name

        var mySource = Folder.selectDialog ("Choose the Source folder") // or var mySource = "~/Desktop/DTop_Artwork/" // Source folder

        var myTarget = Folder.selectDialog ("Choose the Target folder") // or  var myTarget = "~/Desktop/Target/" // Target folder

        var csvFile = File.openDialog("Choose CSV File") // or var csvFile = File("~/Desktop/Book1.csv") // Excel Document location and name

        var errCount = 0 // If empty cells are found in csv file for 5 rows the script finishes

        for (var Num = 1; Num < 1000 ; Num++)

              { var colHd = "Number", rowHd = "R"+Num, cellCont=excelVal(csvFile,colHd,rowHd); // Excel Variable

                 var cellContPad = "0000" // Sets padding for page number

                 var cellCont = (cellContPad.substring(0, cellContPad.length - cellCont.length) + cellCont) //Sets page number with padding

                 if (cellCont == 0000) {errCount = errCount + 1}; if (errCount == 5) {exit()} // exit when 5 empty cells are detected

                 File(mySource+"/"+cellCont+fileName).copy(myTarget+"/"+cellCont+fileName) // Copy to target folder

              }

    // Function for reading the CSV file

        function excelVal(csvFile, X_value, Y_value) {var cLine, cLineArr, xIdx;

                                                                               csvFile.open("r");

                                                                               cLine = "," + csvFile.readln();

                                                                               xIdx = (cLine).search("," + String(X_value) );

                                                                           if (xIdx !=-1) xIdx = cLine.slice(0, xIdx).split(",").length - 1;

                                                                           do { cLineArr = csvFile.readln().split(",");

                                                                                   if (cLineArr[0] == Y_value) {csvFile.close();

                                                                                   return cLineArr[xIdx]; }}

                                                                           while ( !csvFile.eof ) }

>Can I replace the "R"+Num in my code with something else that will just simply read the line number instead of requiring the "Rows" column?

Have you opened the csv file to verify line numbers are present? Unless yours is unique, there is no 'line number' in the file. The line number is obtained as the line-count is incremented with each occurrence of an EOL character.

If you really want the number in an easy way just implement a counter in some manner

var counter = 1;
for (i=0;i<obj.length;i++)     {
//read csv
//finally increase counter
counter++;
}

Alternatively, you can read it directly from Excel. Why do you need an extra step of exporting an xlsx-file to csv?

Here is a practical example of using the function.

— Kas

Your "excelVal" function does not ring any bells for me -- it is not a standard InDesign function, is it? It seems purposely designed to read data out of any single, uniquely addressable cell. Where did you get hold of it?

If your input data is truly a plain text .CSV file, it might be easier to have your script read it in its entirety, split on '\n' so you have an array of rows, and then split each line on the comma (or any other separator character that you are using) so you get cells. That will create a two-dimensional string in memory, ready to be handled any way you desire.