Reading Data from a CSV file

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Hello,

I would like to know how to read data from a CSV file, specifically a distance value, x and z coordinates, and a rotation value (y), then enter those into the software. The purpose of this is to take data from a scanner and create a map of obstacles for it. Also, is it possible to do this if the CSV file is constantly being updated by the software writing it.

An example is Scanner is at (3,2), sensor is rotated 142 degrees, item detected 105cm from sensor. Software adds block 105cm from (3,2) process is repeated as scanner adds values to the file.

Let me know if anything needs to be clarified.

Also, I only code in javascript.

Answer 1

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Answer by robertbu · Sep 03, 2014 at 05:28 AM

You are asking someone to write a script for you (or at least a function). This list answers single, specific questions to help you write your own code. Here is a bit of untested code to get you started. It reads all the contents of a file into a single string, splits that string into an array of lines, take the first line and splits it on commas, and converts the first value in the spit array to a float. This is example code that assumes perfectly formatted, numeric only data (no error checking).

     var fileData : String  = System.IO.File.ReadAllText(path)
     var lines : String[] = fileData.Split("\n"[0]);
     var lineData : String[] = (lines[0].Trim()).Split(","[0]);
     var x : float;
     float.TryParse(lineData[0], x);

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marsfan · Sep 06, 2014 at 04:03 PM 0

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What does [0] do after .Split?

marsfan · Sep 06, 2014 at 04:30 PM 0

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Ok. So I cannot seem to print out any of this data. If I run a debug.log of the x value. It return 0, while the first value in the csv file is not 0.

robertbu · Sep 06, 2014 at 08:34 PM 1

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You need to test. Put Debug.Log() statements after the ReadAllText(), another to test lines[0], and for lineData[0]. If they all look fine, check their length to see if there are any hidden characters in the string.

gwizdkey · Oct 20, 2016 at 08:37 AM 4

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You can use: Split(','); ins$$anonymous$$d of: Split(","[0]);

It's because method expects char, not string.

Answer 2

Answer by gaminggal39 · Nov 13, 2018 at 09:48 AM

Read Data from CSV file watch this : https://youtu.be/xwnL4meq-j8

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Answer 3

Answer by Kermer · Jan 10, 2019 at 04:21 PM

Since gaminggal already performed decent necromancy, I'd like to add few words.

It looks to me like, there's no decent Asset/Script in Unity to handle CSV, I mean doing proper reading and writing. Most examples given by the community assume that the CSV only uses 2 special symbols which is comma and newline (just LF), which is false. This is fine for learning what CSV is, but you can very easily break your parsing functionality by just editing CSV file with MS Excel, and placing newline anywhere.

Lack of proper implementation might be caused because C# (.Net) already contains large amount of specialized libraries for CSV handling.

If you're looking for decent CSV reader/writer, you can take a look here: https://github.com/JoshClose/CsvHelper

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Answer 4

Answer by tiagoperes · Oct 23, 2019 at 10:37 AM

This is my favorite CSVReader, created by Teemu Ikonen. Basically it goes through the regular expressions, reads the CSV file, and finally converts it as a dictionary for further usage. Very easy to use and he explains in his blog how to.

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RCBGames · Mar 18, 2020 at 06:17 PM 0

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Sorry but I'm having an error and I don't know why. For some reson, using this CSV reader, data.Count is equals to 0. Do you know why is this happening? I didn't change anything on the scripts. It should work like this, isn't it? Thank you.

Reading Data from a CSV file

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