github.com/sparkboxx/csv_importer

Ever needed to import csv files where every row needs to be converted into a model?

The CSV importer turns every row of a CSV file into an object. Each column is matched and tested against a given class. You can provide a dictionary with translations between the CSV column names and the object properties.

• Probably no windows support right now because of different line endings.

require 'csv_importer'

class Product < Struct.new(:title, :price, :brand, :image); end

file = File.open("filename.csv", "rb")
importer = CSVImporter::Importer.new(file, Product) # Load file and Model
importer.objects # Import and return objects

This will look at the first line of filename.csv, and get the column names. It will then try and initialize a Product for each line using the values of the given columns.

It does NOT save the objects yet. For use with ActiveRecord objects you can provide an argument to call save on every product when created

products = importer.object(true)

The attributes of ActiveRecord objects are assigned using update_attributes for increased security. Beware, that if the model is not an ActiveRecord model mass assigning attributes by CSV column name might impose a security risk if you don’t know the exact names of the CSV columns.

You can also use a dictionary to “translate” between the column names in the CSV and the attribute names of your model

class Product < Struct.new(:title, :price, :brand, :image); end
csv_string = "title, the price, the brand \n jeans, 10, fashionable"

dictionary = {"the brand"=>"brand", "the price"=>"price"}

importer = CSVImporter::Importer.new(csv_string, Product, dictionary)
products = importer.objects

• This gem uses the standard ruby CSV libary. Ruby 1.9 will have a new library which will probably be compatible.

sudo gem install csv_importer

(The MIT License)

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