Query CSV Data through ODBC in Node.js

Node.js is a JavaScript runtime environment that allows you to run JavaScript code outside of a browser. With the CData ODBC Driver for CSV, you can access live CSV data from Node.js apps and scripts. In this article, we walk through installing node-odbc and the required tools to create a simple Node.js app with access to live CSV data.

With built-in optimized data processing, the CData ODBC Driver offers unmatched performance for interacting with live CSV data in Node.js. When you issue complex SQL queries from Node.js to CSV, the driver pushes supported SQL operations, like filters and aggregations, directly to CSV and utilizes the embedded SQL engine to process unsupported operations client-side (often SQL functions and JOIN operations).

Connecting to CSV Data

If you have not already done so, provide values for the required connection properties in the data source name (DSN). You can use the built-in Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to configure the DSN. This is also the last step of the driver installation. See the "Getting Started" chapter in the help documentation for a guide to using the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure a DSN.

The DataSource property must be set to a valid local folder name.

Also, specify the IncludeFiles property to work with text files having extensions that differ from .csv, .tab, or .txt. Specify multiple file extensions in a comma-separated list. You can also set Extended Properties compatible with the Microsoft Jet OLE DB 4.0 driver. Alternatively, you can provide the format of text files in a Schema.ini file.

Set UseRowNumbers to true if you are deleting or updating in CSV. This will create a new column with the name RowNumber which will be used as key for that table.

Building node-odbc

In order to connect to CSV through the CData ODBC Driver, you need to build node-odbc manually (after installing the required tools).

Installing the Required Tools

The following commands install the tools required to build node-odbc (note the -g parameter, which installs the tools globally).

npm i -g windows-build-tools
npm i -g node-gyp

Building node-odbc

After installing the required tools, create a directory for the Node.js app and install odbc (which builds the binary for us to use in our Node.js script).

mkdir nodeodbc
cd nodeodbc
npm i -g node

Querying CSV from Node.js

With the ODBC Driver installed, a DSN Configured, and node-odbc built, we are ready to query live CSV data from a Node.js app. The sample code below connects to a specific DSN and queries the Customer table.

myscript.js

const odbc = require('odbc');

async function queryCSV() {
    const connection = await odbc.connect(`DSN=CData CSV Source`);
    const data = await connection.query('SELECT City, TotalDue FROM Customer');
    console.log(data);
}

queryCSV();

Once you write the app, use node to execute the script:

node myscript.js

Download a free, 30-day trial of the CData ODBC Driver for CSV and start working with your live CSV data in Node.js. Reach out to our Support Team if you have any questions.