Thread: Looking for help with reading data from csv file or memory onto screen ..

Hi .. I am a bit of a newbie C programmer but I know some.

But I do need help on this one.

I have a csv file (comma delimited text file really) and I have data ,about 6400 lines, and I need to read and display data from 1 line.
At the bottom is sample data from my csv file.

I want to read onto the screen the 3rd item .. ie Test User 1 and the date and time at the end (the last 2 items).

I will enter in a number .. from which I will want to retrieve the appropriate record .. in this case I would enter in 514, 563 or 874 and get back the info for that record.

This is a DOS 16 bit application .. and I know that some of the data is in memory already but I am not sure how to tell .. or how to retrieve it.

I do have the ability to save the data to the file at any time .. so I can use that to ensure that the data is current in the text file
before I retrieve the data from this 1 row.

I think that it may just be easier to get from the text file ? but I am not sure.

0000,7,0,"Test User 1",53c145cb,db,5,514,514,2014/07/12,10:27:23
0001,7,0,"Test User 2",53d7f,1903,10,563,563,2014/07/24,11:04:31
0002,7,0,"Test User 3",529c,5ffb03,0,874,874,2013/12/02,09:07:58


I am a database guy .. and I am just a bit lost when it comes to C programming as such.

Any advice would be appreciated.

A development process
Start simple, say by just writing the program which prints each line in turn.

Then say copies the line to another file.

Then say examines lines looking for interesting data.

I didn't choose it ... trust me. The majority of the application was written a long time ago .. like 14 years ago. I just have been modifying it.
I really need someone who knows C to look at my source code and suggest how to do what I want.

If it was in like a database product .. and not C, it would take me all of about 3 min and 2.5 of that would be waiting for my pc to boot.

I am beyond frustrated at this point.

The data is possibly in an array (idList) but I don't really know how to tell what is actually stored in the array.

I am willing to post the attach the original source code if someone could help me cause this is way beyond my knowledge of C.

Have you considered googling for a csv parsing library and use one?

About 2 months ago I wrote a rather limited and simple csv parser in C99 for a mini coding-challenge at a Greek forum.

From the sample csv data you presented it seems it could help you (unless your csv files use multi-byte encodings)...
.h
.c

PS. Feel free to customize/improve the code (for example, those huge macros should really be functions... I needed them guaranteed inlined, only for that coding challenge). Also, please note that it's not extensively tested, so it may contain bugs.

Originally Posted by edmscan

But I am having more issues with getting my Watcom IDE to work .. it gives me an error of "No Targets Installed" when I try to create a project. I don't know if I can use any compiler .. as the original programmers used Watcom.

You likely need to use the Watcom compiler or hire someone to fix the code for another compiler.
You also likely need to use the same version (or a close version) of the Watcom compiler.

1. Have you compiled a hello world type project with your compiler to verify the compiler and IDE are working correctly.
2. Next, try to compile the file you are planning to change without any changes to see if it compiles.
3. You really need to post the information about your compiler/IDE version number!
4. Post the information about your computer OS; Windows version and 32 bit or 64 bit.
I know nothing about the Watcom compiler/IDE.

Tim S.

> The data is possibly in an array (idList) but I don't really know how to tell what is actually stored in the array.
But...

> I actually have 75% of if it done ... I can enter in the particular number that I want .. ie 514
> and get the info on the screen .. so "514 Test User 1"
I would suggest you look really closely at how you got "Test User 1" out of the idList, because "2014/07/12 10:27:23" is going to be pretty close by.

May be this helps a bit - CSV data manipulation - Rosetta Code