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Connect to CSV Data in Ruby
Connect to CSV data in Ruby with ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc.
The CData ODBC Driver for CSV makes it easy to integrate connectivity to live CSV data in Ruby. This article shows how to create a simple Ruby app that connects to CSV data, executes a query, and displays the results.
Create an ODBC Connection to CSV Data
If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.
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.
Installing Ruby and Necessary Gems
If you do not have Ruby installed, refer to the Ruby installation page. With Ruby installed, you will need to install the ruby-dbi, dbd-odbc, and ruby-odbc gems:
gem install dbi
gem install dbd-odbc
gem install ruby-odbc
Create a Ruby App with Connectivity to CSV Data
Create a new Ruby file (for example: CSVSelect.rb) and open it in a text editor. Copy the following code into your file:
#connect to the DSN
require 'dbi'
cnxn = DBI.connect('DBI:ODBC:CData CSV Source','','')
#execute a SELECT query and store the result set
resultSet = cnxn.execute("SELECT City, SUM(TotalDue) FROM Customer GROUP BY City")
#display the names of the columns
resultSet.column_names.each do |name|
print name, "\t"
end
puts
#display the results
while row = resultSet.fetch do
(0..resultSet.column_names.size - 1).each do |n|
print row[n], "\t"
end
puts
end
resultSet.finish
#close the connection
cnxn.disconnect if cnxn
With the file completed, you are ready to display your CSV data with Ruby. To do so, simply run your file from the command line:
ruby CSVSelect.rb
Writing SQL-92 queries to CSV allows you to quickly and easily incorporate CSV data into your own Ruby applications. Download a free trial today!
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CSV ODBC Driver
The CSV ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live flat-file delimited data (CSV/TSV files), directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.
Access flat-file data like you would any standard database - read, write, and update etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.
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