Remove values from rows under specific columns in csv file

Question

I'm currently trying to remove specific values from rows under specific columns in a CSV-file.

Whats the best way of doing this?

Is it to use a XSLT map file in the code or doing this only by code? (Using c#)

What I want to do is this:

BEFORE MANIPULATION:

 id, name, email, phoneNumber, dob 
 1,John Doe,[email protected],123456789,1988-08-08
 2,Jane Doe,[email protected],987654321,1987-07-07

AFTER MANIPULATION:

 id, name, email, phoneNumber, dob 
 1,John Doe,,,1988-08-08 
 2,Jane Doe,,,1987-07-07

As you can see "email" and "phoneNumber" is gone

Please edit your question and show us the code you are currently working with and describe any issues you are having with that code. — Linda Lawton - DaImTo
– Linda Lawton - DaImTo, Commented Dec 4, 2018 at 8:52
XSLT is really designed for converting XML files. Whilst not impossible to handle CSV files, you are really better off doing it by code. See stackoverflow.com/questions/3507498/… for one example. — Tim C
– Tim C, Commented Dec 4, 2018 at 8:55
It's not difficult, so I would do with code. There might be some tool that would let you do it with less code, but the time taken to learn it would remove any benefit (and a future maintainer would probably rewrite it from scratch). Just read the file into a set of variables, one line at a time. Clear any variables you want, and write them to a new file. — Robin Bennett
– Robin Bennett, Commented Dec 4, 2018 at 8:59

sergey p · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-04 20:10:49Z

0

You can use C# without any libs to separate and joint csv strings. it's easier than use XLST. As sample:

 String csv = "1,John Doe,[email protected],123456789,1988-08-08";
 String[] csvList = csv.Split(',');
 csvList[2] = "";
 csvList[3] = "";
 csv = String.Join(",", csvList);

edited Dec 4, 2018 at 20:10

answered Dec 4, 2018 at 20:04

sergey p

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1 Comment

H4p7ic Over a year ago

This was exactly what i was looking for. Thanks!

helcim · Accepted Answer · 2018-12-04 19:45:31Z

0

Best way very much depends on personal preferences. For me the best way would be to use sed. Assuming your data is in data.csv file:

cat data.csv | sed '2,$ s/\([^,]*\),\(.[^,]*\),\(.[^,]*\),\([^,]*\),\([^,]*\)/\1,\2,,,\5/' > output.csv

edited Dec 4, 2018 at 19:45

answered Dec 4, 2018 at 19:37

helcim

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