CSV Buddy (v3.0) - Read me

CSV Buddy helps you make your CSV files ready to be imported by a variety of software. Load files with all sort of field delimiters (comma, tad, semi-colon) and encapsulators (double/single-quotes or any other). Convert line breaks in data field (XL ready). Rename/reorder fields, merge fields in new columns, add/edit records, filter or search, search and replace, save with any delimiters and export to fixed-width, HTML templates or XML formats. Automate tasks with scripting. Unicode ready. Freeware.

Written using AutoHotkey_L v1.1.09.03+ (https://www.autohotkey.com/)
By Jean Lalonde (JnLlnd on AHK forum
First official release: 2013-11-30

Links

• Application home
• Download 32-bits / 64-bits (latest version)
• Description
• Installation
• Using CSV Buddy
• CSV Buddy Scripting

History

2022-07-14 v3.0

Merge fields

• add a "Merge" command in tab "2) Edit Columns" with two text boxes to set 1) the template of the new field with including existing fields enclosed by merge delimiters, for example "Full name: [FirstName] [LastName]") and 2) the name of the new field (see documentation)
• configurable Merge opening and closing delimiters in the "Options" tab
• support for placeholder ROWNUMBER (enclosed with merge delimiters) in merge fields format section, for example "#[ROWNUMBER]"
• when loading a file, support for merged fields in the file header allowing to create an new field using a template inserting values from of previous fields in each row (see documentation)

User interface - Font size and screen scaling

• redesign the user interface to support font changes in the main window, full screen editor and zoom windows
• new font settings in "Options" tab for labels (default Microsoft Sans Serif, size 11), text input (default Courier New, size 10) and list (default Microsoft Sans Serif, size 10)
• adjust display for HDPI screen scaling

User interface - Various improvements

• change the order of commands in tab 2 to "Rename", "Order", "Select" and "Merge"
• add "Undo" buttons for each commands in tab 2 allowing to revert the last change
• track changes in list data and alert user for unsaved changes before quiting the application
• add a section to the status bar to show that changes need to be saved
• disable application's window during loading file, loading to listview, saving to csv or exporting data
• stop quitting the application when user hit the Escape key
• display error message if trying to open a file that does not exist
• put more info in error message displayed if a file does not load correctly
• in Search and replace, fix bug not allowing to replace it nothing
• fix a bug opening the wrong record editor

Scripting (beta)

• new CSV Buddy companion application "CSV Messenger" to send scripting messages to CSV Buddy
• before sending scripting messages, CSV Messenger checks that CSV Buddy is running and that only one instance is running
• CSV Buddy scripting messages sent from CSV Messenger and take action on scripting messages "Tab", "Exec", "Set", "Choose", "Delim", "Window" (Minimize, Maximize and Restore), "Debug", "Exit", "Sleep" and "Timeout" (see online documentation)
• messages can be sent from CSV Messenger to CSV Buddy using 2 methods:
  • 1. using the command line, for example C:>CSVMessenger Set strFileToLoad "c:\myfiles\example.csv"
  • 2. sending a script file to CSV Buddy with a command like C:>CSVMessenger "c:\myfiles\script.txt" (see documentation for script file syntax)
• control progress messages displayed by CSV Messenger with value "MessengerVerbose" under section [Messenger] in CSVBuddy.ini with possible values 0, 1 or 2:
  • 0 Silent: no dialog box or command line message shown after CSV Messenger sends commands
  • Errors only: display a dialog box only when an error occurred in CSV Buddy (default)
  • Always: after each command executed in CSV Buddy, display a dialog box (for launch errors) or a command line message (on commands success or errors)
• when exiting CSV Messenger, return an exit code to the caller (batch file of other script) aloowing to control the execution of the remaining of the script:
  • 1: CSV Buddy is not running
  • 2: More than one instance of CSV Buddy is running
  • 3: No parameter on the command line
  • 4: Execution error
• add "Timeout nnn" command to change the timeout default value of 30000 ms (30 seconds)
• See CSV Buddy Scripting help at https://csvbuddy.quickaccesspopup.com/csv-buddy-scripting/
• NOTE: CSV Buddy scripting is still in beta developement; please report bugs or suggestions at https://forum.quickaccesspopup.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=32

2017-12-10 v2.1.6

• Fix bug when changing the Fixed with default in Export tab.

2017-07-20 v2.1.5

• Fix bug when processing HTML or XML multi-line content, reversing earlier change done to support non-standard CSV files created by XL causing issue (stripping some "=") in encapsulated fields.

2017-07-20 v2.1.4

• Fix bug: show the end-of-line replacement field when loading a file from the command-line (or by double-click a file in Explorer).

2016-12-23 v2.1.3

• Fix bug preventing correct detection of current field delimiter when file is loaded (first delimiter detected in this order: tab, semicolon (;), comma (,), colon (:), pipe (|) or tilde (~)).

2016-12-22 v2.1.2

• Fix bug when creating header if "Set header" is selected and "Custom header" is empty.
• Now using library ObjCSV v0.5.8

2016-12-20 v2.1.1

• Fix bug when "Set header" is selected and "Custom header" is empty, columns with "C" field names generated are now sorted correctly.
• Now using library ObjCSV v0.5.7

2016-10-20 v2.1

• Stop trimming (removing spaces at the beginning or end) data value read from CSV file (but still trimming field names read from CSV file).
• Now using library ObjCSV v0.5.6

2016-09-06 v2.0

• New Record editor dialog box with field-by-field edition (support up to 200 fields per row)
• New "Options" tab to change setting values saved to the CSVBuddy.ini file
• New option "Record editor" for choice of 1) "Full screen Editor" (legacy) or 2) "Field-by-field Editor" (new), default is 2
• New option "Encapsulate all values" to always enclose saved values with the encapsulator character
• Display a "Create" button on first tab to create a new file based on the Set header data
• Remember the last folder where a file was loaded
• Code signature with certificate from DigiCert
• See history for v1.3.9 and v1.3.9.1 for details and bug fixes

2016-08-31 v1.3.9.1

• Unlock the "CSV file to load" zone in first tab, allowing to type or paste a file name
• Add a "Create" button on first tab to create a new file based on the "CSV file Header" data
• Remember the last folder where a file was loaded and use it as default location when loading another file
• Add items to context menu to add and edit rows with field-by-field editor
• Fix bug when filter on a column, hitting the Cancel button now cancels the filtering
• Fix bug default encoding in firts tab is now "Detect" if no default value is saved to the ini file
• Apply grid setting and colors to list of field in field-by-field row editor
• Fix bug reading values in ini file for "Skip Ready Prompt" and "Skip Quit Prompt"
• Fix visual glitch with labels close to left part of tabs, labels were overlaping left vertical line

2016-08-28 v1.3.9

• New Record editor dialog box with field-by-field edition
• New "Options" tab to change setting values saved to the CSVBuddy.ini file
• New option "Record editor" for choice of 1) "Full screen Editor" (legacy) or 2) "Field-by-field Editor" (new). Default is 2.
• New option "Encapsulate all values" to always enclose saved values with the encapsulator character
• Help button for Options
• Bug fix: now detect the end-of-line character(s) in fields where line-breaks have to be replaced by a replacement string (detected in this order: CRLF, LF or CR). The first end-of-lines character(s) found is used for remaining fields and records.
• Now using library ObjCSV v0.5.5

2016-07-23 v1.3.3

• If file encoding is not specified (leave encoding at "Detect") when loading a file, it is loaded as UTF-8 or UTF-16 if these formats are detected in file header or as ANSI for all other formats (and displayed as such in load and save encoding encoding lists); UTF-8-RAW and UTF-16-RAW formats cannot be auto-detected and must be selected in encoding list to load files in these formats
• Add values SreenHeightCorrection and SreenWidthCorrection in CSVBuddy.ini file (enter negative values in pixels to reduce the height or width of edit row dialog box)

2016-06-08 v1.3.2

• Fix bug introduced in v1.2.9.1 preventing from saving manual record edits in some circumstances
• Automatic file encoding detection is now restricted to UTF-8 or UTF-16 encoded files (no BOM)
• Read the new value DefaultFileEncoding= (under [global]) in CSVBuddy.ini to set the default file encoding (possible values ANSI, UTF-8, UTF-16, UTF-8-RAW, UTF-16-RAW or CPnnn)

2016-05-21 v1.3.1

• Change licence to Apache 2.0

2016-05-18 v1.3

• Select file encoding when loading, saving or exporting files
• Encoding supported: ANSI (default), UTF-8 (Unicode 8-bit), UTF-16 (Unicode 16-bit), UTF-8-RAW (no BOM), UTF-16-RAW (no BOM) or custom codepage CPnnnn
• Set custom codepage values in CSVBuddy.ini file
• Other changes
• When editing a record, zoom button to edit long strings in a large window
• When there is not enough space on screen to edit all fields in a file, support editing the visible fields without loosing the content of the missing fields
• Automatic detection of loaded file encoding (this is not possible for files without byte order mark (BOM))
• Deselect all rows after global search is cancelled
• Add status bar right section to display hint about list menu
• Add help message when right-clicking on column headers
• Remove global search and replace (needing to be reworked)

2014-08-31 v1.2.3

• Bug fix: when saving or exporting file with a column sort indicator

2014-03-17 v1.2.2

• Bug fix: after a column sort, fix names errors in column headers
• Bug fix: by safety, remove sorting column indicator before any action in edit columns tabs

2014-03-09 v1.2.1

• Bug fix: ini variables missing when ini file already existed making grid black text on black background
• Bug fix: bug with multiple instances

2014-03-07 v1.2

• Search and replace by column, replacement case sensitive or not
• Confirm each replacement or replace all
• During search or replace, select and highlight the current row when displaying the record found
• Option in ini file to display or not a grid around cells in list zone
• Options in ini file to choose background and text colors in list zone
• Up or down arrow to indicate which field is the current sort key
• Allow multiple instances of the app to run simultaneously
• Import CSV files created by XL that include equal sign before the opening field encasulator

2013-12-30 v1.1

• Filter by column: click on a header to retain only rows with the keyword appearing in this column
• Global filtering: right-click in the list zone to retain only rows with the keyword appearing in any column
• Search by column: find the next row having the keyword in this column and open it in row edit window
• Global search: find the next row having the keyword in any column and open it in row edit window
• In edit row window search result, highlight the field containing the searched keyword
• Added stop and next buttons to edit row window when search in progress
• Added reload original file to the column menu and the list context menu
• Display the current edited record number in edit row title bar
• Add blnSkipConfirmQuit option in ini file to skip the quit confirm prompt, default to false
• Use ObjCSV library v0.4 for better file system error handling

2013-12-27 v1.0.1

• Fix a small bug in the "Add row" dialog box where default values were presented when this dialog box should not have default values

2013-11-30 v1.0

• First official release
• Add records to existing data (right-click in the list zone)
• Create a new file from scratch (right-click in an empty list zone)
• Load the file mentioned as first parameter in the command line
• Add validation, confirm before exit and fix various small bugs

2013-11-03 v0.9

• Display "<1" (instead of "0") in status bar when file size is smaller than 0.5 K
• Removed CSV Buddy icon from the Tray
• Add three test delimited files to the package (see README.txt in the zip file)
• Fix default value of blnSkipHelpReadyToEdit in ini file to 0

2013-10-20 v0.8.1

• If an .ini file is not found in the program's folder, it is created with default values

2013-10-18 v0.8.0

• First release of BETA version
• History of ALPHA phase on BitBucket (private repository)

Copyright 2013-2016 Jean Lalonde

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
you may not use this file except in compliance with the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at

http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. See the License for the specific language governing permissions and limitations under the License.

Jean Lalonde, [email protected]