CsvWriter Append(); help

[KirkPatrick]

I'm using CsvReader/CsvWriter to read and write my data to csv files. And I have a question about appending lines of data to other certain lines.

Lets say I have some data already saved, now I open my other program which has more info that I would like to add to that same line.

This program has textfields that add to a table, then when I click save it takes the information from the table and saves it to a separate csv file. I'm planning on making it save that info in the first csv file so that I can read all the information at one time.

So in short, is there a way to make my program append (add on) my new data to the old csv file in a specific lines?

When I read the info from file1.csv, I split it into columns like this:

String[] values = viewObject.split("," , 3);
                    dataA = values[0];
                    dataB = values[1];
                    dataC = values[2];

Perhaps by throwing something like the following in?

if (dataAtextField == dataA) {
   // make csv writer append to that line somehow
}

Any ideas or helpful hints?

[JamesCherrill]

Create a FileOutputStream in append mode, then create your csvwriter using that output stream

[KirkPatrick]

Can you elaborate a bit? I'm not quite sure I follow you.

I took a look into FileOutputStream, I took note on a couple of things:

• FileOutputStream is meant for writing bytes of raw data such as images, FileWriter is preferred for streams of characters
• Bytes will be written to the end of the file

I figure the first listed object isn't a big deal. And the second listed object is more than likely solved with the way you explained it. I don't quite follow, if you don't mind explaining it a little I would appreciate it.

Further Info About My Program (may or may not be useful) :

My original data is saved by an external (third party) program. My secondary data will be coming from a class I have created (basically taking information that I have on a table)

So currently file1.csv looks something like:

Col = Column

[Col 1] [Col 2] [Col 3]

dataA, dataB, dataC,
dataD, dataE, dataF,

and the data from my class (from the table) saves to a separate file2.csv file like so:

[Col 1] [Col 2] [Col 3] [Col 4] [Col 5] [Col 6] [Col 7] [Col 8]

data1, data 2, data 3, data4, data5, data6, data7, data8,
data9, data10 , data11 , data12, data13, data14, data 15, data16,

If [Col 1] (from file1.csv) is equal to [Col 1] in file2.csv I want the information added to that line in file1.csv

However I would like to completely eliminate file2.csv so perhaps getting the value in my first column on the jTable and comparing it to [Col 1]

Anyways those are just thoughts as I still have a lot of java to learn.

[JamesCherrill]

You create your csvwriter using a file name. That's OK, but there's no option to set "append" mode. There's an alternative constructor for csvwriter that takes an OutputStream as a parameter. FileOutputStream is a kind of OutputStream, which can be opened in append mode. So you can:
1. create a FileOutputStream using the file name and append mode.
2. create a csvwriter using the FileOutputStream from (1)
3. anything you write to the csvwriter will be appended to the file.

[KirkPatrick]

Alright that makes a bit more sense and cleared some things up, however before I put it all into action, will it be able to put that data at the end of certain lines? Or just the end of the file?

I assume using a simple if statement should allow me to do the comparison but not quite sure how it would add to that line exactly

[JamesCherrill]

End of the file only.
To append to each line you'll have to read in the old file and replace it by writing a complete new file

[KirkPatrick]

So then appending wouldn't be practical anymore since I need to add to the end of certain lines.

Instead something like this could work? (typed it out on a whim) :

BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader ("C:\\myFile.csv"));

        try {
            boolean bHeadersDone = false;
            while (reader.ready()) {
                String beanInfo = reader.readLine();
                
                if (!bHeadersDone) {
                    if (beanInfo.contains("Ping")) {
                        bHeadersDone = true;
                    }
                } 
                else {
                    String[] values = beanInfo.split("," , 3);
                    dataA = values[0];
                    dataB = values[1];
                    dataC = values[2];

                  // textField.getText() is data1 
                  // add whatever is in column 2 to my program GUI via textfield
                  // add whatever is in column 3 to my program GUI via textfield

		    if (dataA.equals(textField.getText())) {  		
			textField1.getText(dataB);			
			textField2.getText(dataC);			

javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel tableModel = (javax.swing.table.DefaultTableModel)jTable1.getModel();

tableModel.addRow(new Object[]{textField1.getText(), textField2.getText(),textField3.getText(),textField4.getText(),textField5.getText(),textField6.getText(),textField7.getText(),textField8.getText()});

			com.csvreader.CsvWriter writer = new com.csvreader.CsvWriter("C:\\myFile.csv");

			writer.writeRecord(new String[]{"dataB", "dataC", "data2", "data3", "data4", "data5", "data6", "data7", "data7"});
			}
                  
                }
            }

        } catch (Exception e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }

Sorry for how bad the code got squished, however its due to the forum :/

[KirkPatrick]

Okay I'm going to bump this as I'm attempting to take a slightly different approach.

Lets say I read file one in which i also split the data into columns and then save it to an arraylist like so:

ArrayList<String> arrayList1 = new ArrayList<String>();

String[] values = viewObject1.split("," , 3);
                    dataA = values[0];
                    dataB = values[1];
                    dataC = values[2];

                    if (!dataC.contains("[n/a]")) {

                        arrayList1.add(dataA);
                        arrayList1.add(dataB);

and then I read my second file and do the same thing:

ArrayList<String> arrayList2 = new ArrayList<String>();

String[] values = viewObject2.split("," , 4);
                    itemA = info[0];
                    itemB = info[1];
                    itemC = info[2];
                    itemD = info[3];


                    if (!itemD.contains("[n/a]")) {

                        arrayList2.add(itemA);
                        arrayList2.add(itemB);
                        arrayList2.add(itemC);

And the next thing I want to do is see if dataA and itemA are the same thing, but thats where I am confused because as far as I know it would compare the lines of each arraylist instead of columns correct?

I can't write these to separate arraylists for each column as the info in each file has to line up.

The ultimate goal is that if dataA and itemA match up, I will write each line that goes with each file to a new file. Thus combining them and saving it.

Any ideas or help?