CSV Formatter

In this article

Overview

You can use this Snap to read a document at the input, format it as CSV based on the specified parameters, and write CSV data to the output.

Snap Type

CSV Formatter Snap is a READ-type Snap that reads a document that contains data structured as key-value attributes and generates CSV data formatted using specifications provided in the Snap's settings.

Prerequisites

None.

Support for Ultra Pipelines

Does not work in Ultra Pipelines.

Limitations and Known Issues

  • The Snap ignores escape characters when used along with any quote characters. When this happens, the resultant data cannot be parsed correctly using CSV Parser Snap which can cause an error. See Apache CSV Format Issue for details.

  • The Snap prepares the column header for the output view (and hence the CSV file) using the keys defined in the first record. This may result in ignoring any additional key passed in the subsequent records. We recommend that you pass values for a comprehensive set of all keys used in the input view, for the first record.

Snap Views

Type

Format

Number of Views

Examples of Upstream and Downstream Snaps

Description

Type

Format

Number of Views

Examples of Upstream and Downstream Snaps

Description

Input 

Document

 

  • Min: 1

  • Max: 1

  • CSV Generator

  • Mapper

Any document that contains data structured as key-value attributes.

Output

Document

 

  • Min: 1

  • Max: 1

  • File Writer

  • CSV Parser

CSV data formatted using specifications provided in the Snap's settings.

Error

Error handling is a generic way to handle errors without losing data or failing the Snap execution. You can handle the errors that the Snap might encounter while running the Pipeline by choosing one of the following options from the When errors occur list under the Views tab. The available options are:

  • Stop Pipeline Execution: Stops the current pipeline execution when the Snap encounters an error.

  • Discard Error Data and Continue: Ignores the error, discards that record, and continues with the rest of the records.

  • Route Error Data to Error View: Routes the error data to an error view without stopping the Snap execution.

Learn more about Error handling in Pipelines.

Snap Settings

  • Asterisk (*): Indicates a mandatory field.

  • Suggestion icon (): Indicates a list that is dynamically populated based on the configuration.

  • Expression icon (): Indicates whether the value is an expression (if enabled) or a static value (if disabled). Learn more about Using Expressions in SnapLogic.

  • Add icon ( ): Indicates that you can add fields in the field set.

  • Remove icon (): Indicates that you can remove fields from the field set.

Field Name

Field Type

Description

Field Name

Field Type

Description

Label*

Default ValueCSV Formatter
ExampleCSV_Formatter_temp

String

Specify a unique name for the Snap.

Binary header properties

Use this field set to add binary-header properties to the output data. These properties contain data related information that enables the system to interpret data.

Binary headers in a document can be accessed and used in the expression-enabled properties of downstream Snaps. For example, you can use binary headers to specify custom statuses associated with the output data.

Similarly, a 'content-location' property added to the binary header in this Snap can be referenced in the File name property of a File Writer Snap with the expression: $['content-location'].

Expression-enabled fields in Binary header properties are evaluated against the first input document only.

Expression

Default ValueN/A
Exampletext/csv

String

Specify the value to be associated with a specific binary header property.

Target Path

Default ValueN/A
Example$['content-location']

String

Specify the target JSON path where the value in the expression is written.

Quote character

 

Default Value:  “
Example:  “

String

The character that you want to use as the escape character in the CSV document. For example, if you use double quotes (") as the escape character, then commas in the actual data will need to be escaped using double-quotes on both sides.

This property can be an expression. However, if the value associated with the expression contains more than one character, only the first character is used as the quote character.

Quote mode

 

Default Value:  ALL
ExampleMINIMAL

Dropdown list

Select an option to specify how the quote character should be used in formatting the CSV data. Available options are:

  • ALL: All values are quoted.

  • MINIMAL: Values are minimally quoted.  For example, if a value includes a delimiter character, only that character is enclosed in the quote character.

  • NON_NUMERIC: All values except numbers are quoted. If values in the input documents are number objects, they are not quoted. If they are numeric strings, they are quoted.

  • NONE: No value is quoted. If a value includes a delimiter character, it is escaped with a '\' (backslash).

If the Quote character property is empty, the selection of this property is ignored and the Snap uses NONE for the Quote mode.

Delimiter

Default Value: , 
Examples:

  • \t

  • \u0001

String/Expression

Specify the string or the character to be used as a delimiter in formatting the delimited data. Any combination of characters may be used, adhering to the following guidelines.

The input must be submitted with any control characters escaped. For example, \t (tab), \n (new line), or \\ (single backslash) must be escaped accordingly. Unicode characters must be specified using the Unicode escape sequence \uXXXX, where each X represents a hexadecimal digit (0-9, a-f) with all four hexadecimal digits defined.

When using a single backslash (\) as a delimiter, it does not need to be escaped (\\). However, if you are using a multi-character delimiter that contains one or more backslashes (\), you must escape all backslashes (\\).

Use header

Default ValueDeselected
ExampleSelected

Checkbox

Select this checkbox to indicate whether the column names in the Header fields property should be used to format the CSV data. If this checkbox is deselected, the key set of the first document data is used as a CSV header.

Header fields

 

Use this field set to define the header values you want to use in the CSV output data.

Field names


Default ValueN/A
Example$name

String

Specify the field name for the header.

Write CSV header

Default ValueSelected

Checkbox

Select this checkbox to indicate whether the header strings listed in the Header fields properties should be written to the output CSV data.

 

Header size error policy

Default ValueDefault
ExampleFail if record is larger than header

Dropdown list

Select an option to handle any header size errors. 

  • If the Use header field is not selected, then the Snap determines the CSV header from the key set of the first input document.

  • If the Write CSV header field is selected, then the Snap writes the CSV header to the output view binary stream.

The header size error condition occurs when any subsequent input document has additional column names which are not present in the header. To handle header size errors, you can select any of the following options:

  • Default: The Snap appends the additional values to the CSV line.

  • Fail if record is larger than header: The Snap writes the error document to the error view and continues to process the next input document. 

  • Trim record to fit header: The Snap writes the trimmed CSV line to the output view and ignores all additional values in the input document.

Ignore empty stream

Default ValueDeselected

Checkbox

This checkbox determines whether the Snap must or not ignore empty streams received at the input vie