Read Local File Text (tab Separated Values) With D3 Or Ajax Cause Syntax Error In Firefox Development Console

The reading works. However I got a syntax error in the firefox console (which is tiresome when I read 30 files). The files are annotation files like (time \t value) with no headers

Solution 1:

A file reader could work like the code below.

In the example I've added a flag to use the content of the variable instead of a file. That's just for the demo and can be removed. The same code is here as jsFiddle.

Maybe you could add some validation before or after the $.csv method. So you know that the file was a csv/tsv file.

If you need to open the file with-out user interaction, you have to look for something different because JS is not allowed to open a file with-out the user choosing the file (security concerns, see this SO question).

You could add your data to a database and read it from there. e.g. Firebase or MongoDB or use a JSON file. The code of my other answer should work for a JSON file that you host with your webpage.

var demoTxt = "0.0   5.2\
0.5   5.6\
1.0   6.3";

var flag_usedemofile = true; //if true var demoTxt will be usedfunctiondoOpen(evt) {
  var files = evt.target.files,
      reader = newFileReader();
    reader.onload = function() {
        if ( !flag_usedemofile) {
            var arraydata = $.csv.toArrays(this.result,{separator:'   '});
            showout.value = arraydata; //this.result;
        } else {
            var arraydata = $.csv.toArrays(demoTxt,{separator:'   '});
            showout.value = arraydata;
            console.log(arraydata);
        }
    };
    reader.readAsText(files[0]);
}
    
var openbtn = document.getElementById("openselect"),
    showout = document.getElementById("showresult");
openselect.addEventListener("change", doOpen, false);

#showresult {
  width:98%;
  height: 300px;    
}

<scriptsrc="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script><scriptsrc="http://cdnjs.cloudflare.com/ajax/libs/jquery-csv/0.71/jquery.csv-0.71.min.js"></script><inputtype="file"id="openselect" /><textareaid="showresult"></textarea>

Solution 2:

I'm not exactly sure what syntax error you are getting. But I think the error have something to do with the mime type of your json request.

I think the best way is to wrap your data in json and then use JSONP. (I have also tried to get it working with text/plain, but with-out success.)

Please check the following example for details. You can also find the same example on jsFiddle.

(function ($) {
    var url = 'http://www.mocky.io/v2/547c5e31501c337b019a63b0'; // dummy urlvar jsonCallback = function (csv) {
        var arraydata;
        console.log(data);
        $('#data').html(JSON.stringify(csv, null, 2));
        arraydata = $.csv.toArrays(csv.data,{separator:'\t'});
        console.log(arraydata); 
    };

    $.ajax({
        type: 'GET',
        url: url,
        contentType: "application/json",
        dataType: 'jsonp'
    }).done(jsonCallback)
    .fail(function (xhr) {
        alert("error" + xhr.responseText);
    });

})(jQuery);

<scriptsrc="https://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jquery/2.1.1/jquery.min.js"></script><preid='data'></pre>