Converting CSV to JSON in JavaScript

This post shows how you can convert a simple CSV file to JSON in JavaScript.

Consider the following sample CSV:

author,title,publishDate
Dan Simmons,Hyperion,1989
Douglas Adams,The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,1979

The desired JSON output is:

[{"author":"Dan Simmons","title":"Hyperion","publishDate":"1989"},
{"author":"Douglas Adams","title":"The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy","publishDate":"1979"}]

The following JavaScript function transforms CSV into JSON. (Note that this implementation is quite naive and will not handle quoted fields containing commas!)

function toJson(csvData) {
  var lines = csvData.split("\n");
  var colNames = lines[0].split(",");
  var records=[];
  for(var i = 1; i < lines.length; i++) {
    var record = {};
    var bits = lines[i].split(",");
    for (var j = 0 ; j < bits.length ; j++) {
      record[colNames[j]] = bits[j];
    }
    records.push(record);
  }
  return records;
}

A simple test:

csv="author,title,publishDate\nDan Simmons,Hyperion,1989\nDouglas Adams,The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,1979";
json = toJson(csv);
console.log(JSON.stringify(json));

To read a CSV file in JavaScript and convert it to JSON:

var rawFile = new XMLHttpRequest();
rawFile.open("GET", "books.csv", true);
rawFile.onreadystatechange = function () {
  if (rawFile.readyState === 4) {
    if (rawFile.status === 200 || rawFile.status == 0) {
      var allText = rawFile.responseText;
      var result = toJson(allText);
      console.log(JSON.stringify(result));
    }
  }
}
rawFile.send(null);

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