Added rowTable option to ftcsv.parse()

rowTable makes ftcsv.parse() store rows in an existing table, which
allows merging of multiple CSV files.

README.md

@@ -88,6 +88,19 @@ ftcsv.parse("apple,banana,carrot", ",", {loadFromString=true, headers=false})
 
  	In the above example, the first field becomes 'a', the second field becomes 'b' and so on.
 
+ - `rowTable`
+
+ 	If you want to merge multiple CSV files, you can set `rowTable` to be an existing table to which ftcsv will append new rows.
+
+ 	Note: headers are not compared between multiple datasets.  If there is a mismatch between headers of different CSV files, then rows from each CSV file will have missing fields.
+
+ 	```lua
+ 	local options = {loadFromString=true, rename={["a"] = "d", ["b"] = "e", ["c"] = "f"}}
+	local actual = ftcsv.parse("a,b,c\r\napple,banana,carrot", ",", options)
+	options.rowTable = actual
+	ftcsv.parse("a,b,c\r\ndamson,elderberry,fig", ",", options)
+ 	```
+
 For all tested examples, take a look in /spec/feature_spec.lua
 
 

ftcsv.lua

@@ -122,7 +122,7 @@ local function createField(inputString, quote, fieldStart, i, doubleQuoteEscape)
 end
 
 -- main function used to parse
-local function parseString(inputString, inputLength, delimiter, i, headerField, fieldsToKeep)
+local function parseString(outResults, inputString, inputLength, delimiter, i, headerField, fieldsToKeep)
 
     -- keep track of my chars!
     local currentChar, nextChar = sbyte(inputString, i), nil
@@ -141,7 +141,6 @@ local function parseString(inputString, inputLength, delimiter, i, headerField,
     local delimiterByte = sbyte(delimiter)
 
     local assignValue
-    local outResults
     -- the headers haven't been set yet.
     -- aka this is the first run!
     if headerField == nil then
@@ -153,8 +152,9 @@ local function parseString(inputString, inputLength, delimiter, i, headerField,
         end
     else
         -- print("this is for magic")
-        outResults = {}
+        outResults = outResults or {}
-        outResults[1] = {}
+        lineNum = #outResults + 1
+        outResults[lineNum] = {}
         assignValue = function()
             if not pcall(function()
                 outResults[lineNum][headerField[fieldNum]] = field
@@ -300,6 +300,7 @@ function ftcsv.parse(inputFile, delimiter, options)
     local fieldsToKeep = nil
     local loadFromString = false
     local headerFunc
+    local rowTable = {}
     if options then
         if options.headers ~= nil then
             assert(type(options.headers) == "boolean", "ftcsv only takes the boolean 'true' or 'false' for the optional parameter 'headers' (default 'true'). You passed in '" .. tostring(options.headers) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.headers) .. "'.")
@@ -330,6 +331,10 @@ function ftcsv.parse(inputFile, delimiter, options)
             assert(type(options.headerFunc) == "function", "ftcsv only takes a function value for optional parameter 'headerFunc'. You passed in '" .. tostring(options.headerFunc) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.headerFunc) .. "'.")
             headerFunc = options.headerFunc
         end
+        if options.rowTable ~= nil then
+            assert(type(options.rowTable) == "table", "ftcsv only takes in a table for the optional parameter 'rowTable'. You passed in '" .. tostring(options.rowTable) .. "' of type '" .. type(options.rowTable) .. "'.")
+            rowTable = options.rowTable
+        end
     end
 
     -- handle input via string or file!
@@ -347,7 +352,7 @@ function ftcsv.parse(inputFile, delimiter, options)
     end
 
     -- parse through the headers!
-    local headerField, i = parseString(inputString, inputLength, delimiter, 1)
+    local headerField, i = parseString(nil, inputString, inputLength, delimiter, 1)
     i = i + 1 -- start at the next char
 
     -- make sure a header isn't empty
@@ -389,8 +394,8 @@ function ftcsv.parse(inputFile, delimiter, options)
         end
     end
 
-    local output = parseString(inputString, inputLength, delimiter, i, headerField, fieldsToKeep)
+    rowTable = parseString(rowTable, inputString, inputLength, delimiter, i, headerField, fieldsToKeep)
-    return output
+    return rowTable
 end
 
 -- a function that delimits " to "", used by the writer

spec/feature_spec.lua

@@ -21,6 +21,22 @@ describe("csv features", function()
 		assert.are.same(expected, actual)
 	end)
 
+	it("should handle merging multiple datasets", function()
+		local expected = {}
+		expected[1] = {}
+		expected[1].a = "apple"
+		expected[1].b = "banana"
+		expected[1].c = "carrot"
+		expected[2] = {}
+		expected[2].b = "banana"
+		expected[2].c = "carrot"
+		expected[2].d = "damson"
+		expected[2].e = "elderberry"
+		local actual = ftcsv.parse("a,b,c\napple,banana,carrot", ",", {loadFromString=true})
+		ftcsv.parse("b,c,d,e\nbanana,carrot,damson,elderberry", ",", {loadFromString=true, rowTable=actual})
+		assert.are.same(expected, actual)
+	end)
+
 	it("should handle renaming a field", function()
 		local expected = {}
 		expected[1] = {}