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CSVWrite

Last updated on Feb 25, 2025

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Description

Writes a ColdFusion object to a CSV. The object can be a query, array of structs, array of arrays, array of Java arrays, xlsx, csvrecorditerable, and csvString.

History

ColdFusion (2025 release): Added the function.

Syntax

CSVWrite(data, inputFormat, destinationFilePath [,writeConfiguration])

Parameters

Name

Required

Type

Description

data

Yes

Object

Query, array of structs, array of arrays, array of Java arrays, xlsx, csvrecorditerable, and csvString from where to retrieve the data.

inputFormat

Yes

String

Type of input object that must be written as a CSV. The possible values are:

csvstring: writes the object as a csv string.

arrayOfCFArray: writes the object as an array of ColdFusion arrays.

arrayofjavaarray: writes the object as an array of Java arrays.

arrayofstruct: writes the object as an array of ColdFusion structs.

query: writes the object as a ColdFusion query.

xlsx: writes the object as a ColdFusion excel object.

csvrecorditerable: When reading data from large CSV's (100 MB or more), it’s difficult to return an object that stores all records. Hence, csvrecorditerable is necessary to not store the records and allows various iterable functions to parse the records. These are:

next(): iterate over the records.

hasNext(): iterate over the records.

getObject(): returns the first few elements of the iterable as ColdFusion array. A maximum of 10 records are returned.

canGetSize(): returns true or false.

close(): call the method if you want to iterate partially over the records.

destinationFilePath

String

Path of the file where the CSV must be written.

writeConfiguration

Struct

A struct containing the configuration for writing CSV files information. The following values are allowed in the struct:

Key

Value

autoflush

True if you need the file's buffer to be automatically flushed to disk after each write operation.

duplicateHeaderMode

Set the duplicate header names behavior. The values are:

ALLOW_ALL

ALLOW_EMPTY

DISALLOW

delimiter

Set the character delimiter.

escapeCharacter

Set the escape character.

encoding

Encoding to be used for the values in the CSV. The default is UTF-8. The following encoding are supported:

utf -8

iso-8859-1

windows-1252

us- ascii

shift_jis

iso-2022-jp

euc -jp

euc - kr

big5

euc - cn

utf -16

headerComments

Set the header comments set to the specified values. The comments will be printed first, before the headers.

ignoreHeaderCase

Set the parser case mapping behavior. True if you want to access name/values. False, if you do not want any change. The default is True.

nullString

In CSVwrite , nullString replaces null values with the specified string

quoteCharacter

Set the quote character.

quoteMode

Set the quote mode. The values are:

ALL_NON_NULL

MINIMAL

NON_NUMERIC

NONE

readCSVConfig

CSV read configuration options. Add the relevant properties.

recordSeparator

Character to separate the CSV records. For example, comma, /n, etc.

skipHeaderRecord

Ignore the specified number of records/rows at the start of the file. The value must be a Boolean.

trailingDelimiter

True, if you want to add a trailing delimiter. The default is False.

trim

True, if you want to trim leading and trailing blanks. The default is True.

The following matrix lists the support for various output formats:

parameters

ArrayofCFArray

ArrayofJavaArray

xlsx

csvrecorditable

csvString

ArrayOfStruct

query

autoflush=false

Yes

autoflush=true

Yes

delimiter

Yes

duplicateHeaderMode = ALLOW_ALL

Yes

duplicateHeaderMode = ALLOW_EMPTY

Yes

duplicateHeaderMode = DISALLOW

Yes

escapeCharacter

Yes

headerComments with CommentMarker

Yes

nullString

Yes

quoteCharacter

Yes

QuoteMode=All

Yes

QuoteMode=ALL_Non_Null

Yes

QuoteMode=Minimal

Yes

QuoteMode=Non_Numeric

Yes

QuoteMode=None

Yes

readCSVConfig

Yes

record separator

Yes

skipHeaderRecord=false

Yes

skipHeaderRecord=true

Yes

trailingDelimiter=false

Yes

trailingDelimiter=true

Yes

trim

Yes

Example: Writing a CSV from a query object

<cfquery name="queryResult" datasource="art"> 
    SELECT * 
    FROM ART 
</cfquery> 
<cfscript> 
    theFile=GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteQuery.csv"; 
    // write the CSV 
    CSVWrite(queryResult,"query",#theFile#) 
</cfscript>

Example: Writing a CSV from an array of structs

<cfset employees = []> 

 <!--- Create first employee struct ---> 
<cfset employee1 = structNew()> 
<cfset employee1.name = "John Doe"> 
<cfset employee1.age = "30"> 
<cfset employee1.position = "Developer"> 
<cfset arrayAppend(employees, employee1)> 


<!--- Create second employee struct ---> 

<cfset employee2 = structNew()> 
<cfset employee2.name = "Jane Smith"> 
<cfset employee2.age = "25"> 
<cfset employee2.position = "Designer"> 
<cfset arrayAppend(employees, employee2)> 

<!--- Create third employee struct ---> 
<cfset employee3 = structNew()> 
<cfset employee3.name = "Mike Johnson"> 
<cfset employee3.age = "28"> 
<cfset employee3.position = "Manager"> 
<cfset arrayAppend(employees, employee3)> 

<!--- <cfdump var=#employees# > ---> 

<cfscript> 
    theFile=GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteAoS.csv"; 
    CSVWrite(employees,"arrayofstruct",#theFile#) 
</cfscript>

Example: Writing a CSV from another CSV as csv string

<cfscript> 
    theFile=GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "outputCSVString.csv"; // the csv to write the source csv 
    theFile2=GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "customers-100.csv"; // the source csv 
    value = CSVRead(#theFile2#,"csvstring") // read the source csv 
    CSVWrite(value,"csvstring",#theFile#) // write source csv as csvstring to the destination csv 
</cfscript>

Example: Writing a CSV from an array of structs in ColdFusion

<cfset people = []> 

 <cfset person1 = { 
    "name" = "John", 
    "age" = "30", 
    "city" = "New York" 
}> 

<cfset person2 = { 
    "name" = "Emily", 
    "age" = "25", 
    "city" = "Los Angeles" 
}> 

<cfset arrayAppend(people, person1)> 
<cfset arrayAppend(people, person2)> 

<cfscript> 
    //cp = ["name", "age", "city"] 
    theFile=GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "csvWriteArrayOfStructs.csv"; 
    CSVWrite(people,"arrayofstruct",#theFile#) 
</cfscript>

Example: Writing a CSV from from csvrecorditerable

<cfscript> 
    csvfile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "customers-100.csv"; 
    thefile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteCSVRI.csv"; 
    csvObj = csvread(#csvfile#,"csvrecorditerable") 
    writedump(#csvObj#) 
    CSVWrite(csvObj,"csvrecorditerable",#theFile#)  
</cfscript>

Example: Writing a CSV from from csvrecorditerable with delimiter

<cfscript> 
    csvfile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "customers-100.csv"; 
    thefile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteCSVRIDelimiter.csv"; 
    csvObj = csvread(#csvfile#,"csvrecorditerable") 
    CSVWrite(csvObj,"csvrecorditerable",#theFile#,{"delimiter":":"}) 
</cfscript>

More examples

Write a CSV from csvrecorditerable with struct values- {"quoteMode":"ALL","quoteCharacter":"'"}

<cfscript> 
    csvfile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "customers-100.csv"; 
    thefile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteCSVRIStruct.csv";      
    csvObj = csvread(#csvfile#,"csvrecorditerable") 
    CSVWrite(csvObj,"csvrecorditerable",#theFile#,{"quoteMode":"ALL","quoteCharacter":"'"}) 
</cfscript>

Write a CSV from csvrecorditerable with struct values- {"delimiter":";","quoteMode":"NONE","quoteCharacter":"'","escapeCharacter":"-"}

<cfscript> 
    csvfile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "customers-100.csv"; 
    thefile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteCSVRIStruct.csv";      
    csvObj = csvread(#csvfile#,"csvrecorditerable") 
    CSVWrite(csvObj,"csvrecorditerable",#theFile#,{"delimiter":";","quoteMode":"NONE","quoteCharacter":"'","escapeCharacter":"-"}) 
</cfscript>

Write a CSV from csvrecorditerable with struct values- {"quoteMode":"MINIMAL","quoteCharacter":"'"}

<cfscript> 
    csvfile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "customers-100.csv"; 
    thefile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteCSVRIStruct.csv";        
    csvObj = csvread(#csvfile#,"csvrecorditerable") 
    CSVWrite(csvObj,"csvrecorditerable",#theFile#,{"quoteMode":"MINIMAL","quoteCharacter":"'"}) 
</cfscript>

Write a CSV from csvrecorditerable with struct values- {"header":"#test#","skipHeaderRecord":true}

<cfscript> 
    csvfile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "TestDataFile.csv"; 
    thefile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWrite_pos6_6_1.csv"; 
    header=['2021','Level 1','99999','All industries','Dollars (millions)','H07'] 
    csvObj = csvread(#csvfile#,"csvrecorditerable") 
    CSVWrite(csvObj,"csvrecorditerable",#theFile#,{"header":"#test#","skipHeaderRecord":true}) 
</cfscript>

Write a CSV from csvrecorditerable with struct values- {"header":"#header#","skipHeaderRecord":true}

<cfscript> 
    csvfile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "TestDataFile.csv"; 
    thefile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteHeader.csv"; 
    header=['2021','Level 1','99999','All industries','Dollars (millions)','H07'] 
    csvObj = csvread(#csvfile#,"csvrecorditerable") 
    CSVWrite(csvObj,"csvrecorditerable",#theFile#,{"header":"#header#","skipHeaderRecord":true}) 
</cfscript>

Write a CSV from csvrecorditerable with struct values- {"header":"#header#","skipHeaderRecord":false}

<cfscript> 
    csvfile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "TestDataFile.csv"; 
    thefile = GetDirectoryFromPath(GetCurrentTemplatePath()) & "spreadsheetCSVWriteHeader.csv"; 
    header=['2021','Level 1','99999','All industries','Dollars (millions)','H07'] 
    csvObj = csvread(#csvfile#,"csvrecorditerable") 
    CSVWrite(csvObj,"csvrecorditerable",#theFile#,{"header":"#header#","skipHeaderRecord":false}) 
</cfscript>

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