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Method

[file] creates an object that Lasso can use to interact with a file in the filesystem. You can create an empty file object and specify the path later, or you can call the creator method with the path to a file as a parameter. You can also optionally specify  the open and get mode indicators.

When a file connection is opened using the [file] tag, several different open modes can be used. These modes optimize the file connection for best performance depending on the purpose of the connection. A get mode may also be specified to determine how the file will be read (by line or by character). The open and get modes are described below.

File Get Modes
  • [file_modeline] passing this method in for the get mode sets the file object to be read one line at a time
  • [file_modechar] passing this method in for the get mode sets the file object to be read one character at a time
File Open Modes

It is possible to combine various modes by using [integer_bitOr] method. For example, if you wanted to open a file for creation and reading and writing, you could do this:

[var(file) = file('/path/to/file', integer_bitOr(io_file_o_creat, io_file_o_rdwr))]

The [file] type also comes with the following member tags cover the more common open modes: [file->openRead], [file->openWrite], [file->openWriteOnly], [file->openAppend], and [file->openTruncate]

  • Syntax
  • Methods
  • Traits
var(file) = file()

var(file) = file(path, open_mode, get_mode)
Has methods:
Examples
  • Beginner
  • Advanced

Get the contents of a file as a string object

The code below will read the entire contents of a file and return it as a string.

Code

local(f) = file('/path/to/file.txt')
handle => { #f->close }
#f->readString

Result

#f->readString returns the contents of the file as a string, so the result is just the contents of the file

Count the number of fields in a CSV file

The code below counts the number of fields in a CSV file. Since a CSV file could have a field broken across multiple lines, the code is setup to read a line at a time and check to see if it has a complete CSV row. If not, it continues reading lines until it does.

To set this up, the file object is created with this call: [file(#path, io_file_o_rdonly, file_modeLine)]. This opens the specified file specifying the open mode as read only and the get mode as returning a line at a time instead of a character at a time.

Code

define csv_fieldCount(path::string)::integer => {
    // Open a file to read lines not characters
    local(data_file) = file(#path, io_file_o_rdonly, file_modeLine)
    handle => {#data_file->close}

    // Parsing the CSV file
    // Keep reading lines until we run out of lines or until we get a complete CSV line to count # of fields
    local(csv_line)     = ''
    local(parsed_csv)   = array
    local(need_joining) = ''
    while(true) => {
        #csv_line = string(#data_file->get)
        fail_if(not #csv_line, -1, "NOT A CSV FILE: " + #path)

        iterate(#csv_line->split(',')) => {
            if(loop_value->first != '"' && #need_joining == '') => {
                #parsed_csv->insert(loop_value)
                loop_continue
            }
            loop_value->remove(1,1)
            // Count the ending number of " that don't include \" 
            // (for cases such as \"""", the first " won't be included since it is preceded by a backslash)
            // If it ends in an even number, we don't have a properly closed off field yet
            local(count_quotes) = regexp(-input=loop_value, -find=`(?:[^\\])("+)$`)
            if(loop_value != '"' and (not #count_quotes->find or #count_quotes->matchString(1)->size % 2 == 0)) => {
                #need_joining += loop_value + ','
                loop_continue
            }
            #need_joining += loop_value->remove(loop_value->size)&
            #parsed_csv->insert(#need_joining)
            #need_joining = ''
        }

        if(#need_joining == '') => { loop_abort }
        #need_joining += "\n"
    }

    return #parsed_csv->size
}

// Assume the contents of /path/to/file.csv look like this:
// "One, field",2,,4,"Fifth field",6
csv_fieldCount('/path/to/file.csv')

Result

6

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