{ Bannister Labs }

csv-parser

status: complete

A past performance study from 2025: proof that parsing CSV data need not be CPU-bound - a full RFC 4180 parse (including quoted fields with embedded line breaks) in C, measured against the claim. Repository on GitHub; listed as a completed past project.

Repository: https://github.com/pbannister/csv-parser

README

Transcluded from README.md in the repository.

csv-parser

Ran across an article in 2008 that claimed parsing of CSV data was necessarily CPU-bound. Proof is better than opinion, so took code from a prior exercise, and adapted to parse CSV files.

The test program does a full CSV parse as described in RFC 4180 (including handling quoted fields with embedded line breaks) and a bit more, but does nothing with the parsed data.

Usage

Build with:

make

Executable is in:

build/bin/csv-parser

The csv-parser executable demonstrates the parser. Run it without arguments, or pass CSV filename(s) to parse.

Notes

  • The code includes a small utility string class in sources/base/string.h. That file defines base::string_o, a minimal resizable C-style string wrapper used around the parser code.
  • This repository uses CMake for configuration and standard Make for building.

See also

Article written about this example:<br> https://bannister.us/weblog/2008/performance-parsing-csv-data