better csv modules and where have object-craft gone?

[Tim Hoffman]

Hi

I have been using object crafts csv module for quite a few projects,
mainly because I found the csv in python in it's current incarnation
is funtionally inferior to object crafts. The object craft module
for instance allowed you build up csv gradually (ie field at a time
rather the python csv module where the writer does the work a record at
a time) which isn't always the way I would like to work,
also I have always had encoding problems (specifcally it doesn't
support unicode as per the docs) everytime I used the python
module where as the object craft one always worked out of the box.

Only problem is object craft seemed to have disappeared off the face
of the net (ie I can't even resolve their name in DNS).

Which is a pity as I don't have a current copy for 2.3 (windows)
of their csv module.

Does anyone have a copy of the object-craft csv module, or does
anyone know where they have relocated ?

It is a pity if they have disappeared.

Rgds

Tim

[Tim Hoffman]

Oops ignore my comment on the DNS front for object craft,
seems my ISP's DNS just wasn't resolving it earlier today
seems to have popped back up on the radar now though

T

Tim Hoffman wrote:

Hi

I have been using object crafts csv module for quite a few projects,
mainly because I found the csv in python in it's current incarnation
is funtionally inferior to object crafts. The object craft module
for instance allowed you build up csv gradually (ie field at a time
rather the python csv module where the writer does the work a record at
a time) which isn't always the way I would like to work,
also I have always had encoding problems (specifcally it doesn't
support unicode as per the docs) everytime I used the python
module where as the object craft one always worked out of the box.

Only problem is object craft seemed to have disappeared off the face
of the net (ie I can't even resolve their name in DNS).

Which is a pity as I don't have a current copy for 2.3 (windows)
of their csv module.

Does anyone have a copy of the object-craft csv module, or does
anyone know where they have relocated ?

It is a pity if they have disappeared.

Rgds

Tim

[Skip Montanaro]

Tim> I have been using object crafts csv module for quite a few
Tim> projects, mainly because I found the csv in python in it's current
Tim> incarnation is funtionally inferior to object crafts. The object
Tim> craft module for instance allowed you build up csv gradually (ie
Tim> field at a time rather the python csv module where the writer does
Tim> the work a record at a time) which isn't always the way I would
Tim> like to work, also I have always had encoding problems (specifcally
Tim> it doesn't support unicode as per the docs) everytime I used the
Tim> python module where as the object craft one always worked out of
Tim> the box.

I guess beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The Object Craft folks were
key authors of what's in the Python distribution. If you want to write a
field at a time, you should be able to subclass the csv.writer class and add
writefield() and commit() methods. The first appends to an internal list.
The second calls writerow() and clears the list. Something like this
(untested) code might work:

class FieldWriter(csv.writer):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwds):
csv.writer.__init__(self, *args, **kwds)
self.temp = []

def writefield(self, val):
self.temp.append(val)

def commit(self):
self.writerow(self.temp)
self.temp = []

(Be careful. You'll lose partial results if you don't clean up in a __del__
method.)

As for lack of Unicode support that's a known issue. I suppose it hasn't
been high enough on anyone's list of itches to have attracted any scratching
yet. Still, you might be able to get most of the way there with a subclass:

class UnicodeWriter(csv.writer):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwds):
self.encoding = kwds.get('encoding', 'utf-8')
if 'encoding' in kwds: del kwds['encoding']
csv.writer.__init__(self, *args, **kwds)

def writerow(self, row):
for (i,f) in enumerate(row):
if isinstance(f, unicode):
row[i] = f.encode(self.encoding)

I'm almost certain that reading data in multibyte encodings won't work
though, as the low-level reader is byte-oriented instead of
character-oriented. Patches are welcome to resolve that deficiency.

Skip

[David Fraser]

Skip Montanaro wrote:

Tim> I have been using object crafts csv module for quite a few
Tim> projects, mainly because I found the csv in python in it's current
Tim> incarnation is funtionally inferior to object crafts. The object
Tim> craft module for instance allowed you build up csv gradually (ie
Tim> field at a time rather the python csv module where the writer does
Tim> the work a record at a time) which isn't always the way I would
Tim> like to work, also I have always had encoding problems (specifcally
Tim> it doesn't support unicode as per the docs) everytime I used the
Tim> python module where as the object craft one always worked out of
Tim> the box. As for lack of Unicode support that's a known issue. I suppose it hasn't
been high enough on anyone's list of itches to have attracted any scratching
yet. Still, you might be able to get most of the way there with a subclass:

class UnicodeWriter(csv.writer):
def __init__(self, *args, **kwds):
self.encoding = kwds.get('encoding', 'utf-8')
if 'encoding' in kwds: del kwds['encoding']
csv.writer.__init__(self, *args, **kwds)

def writerow(self, row):
for (i,f) in enumerate(row):
if isinstance(f, unicode):
row[i] = f.encode(self.encoding)

I'm almost certain that reading data in multibyte encodings won't work
though, as the low-level reader is byte-oriented instead of
character-oriented. Patches are welcome to resolve that deficiency.

Aha! so this is why my csv2po converter is getting strange encodings out...
What I'd really like to write/have is a pure Python implementation of
the csv module. Presumably this would
1) Make Unicode trivial
2) Be slower
Anyhow it would be nice...

David