jtcsv API Documentation

Current version: 3.1.0

Welcome to the jtcsv API documentation. This library provides complete JSON<->CSV bidirectional conversion with streaming support, security features, and TypeScript types.

Quick Links

• GitHub Repository
• npm Package
• Migration Guide (from PapaParse)
• FAQ

Installation

npm install jtcsv

Core Features

JSON to CSV Conversion

• jsonToCsv() - Convert JSON array to CSV string
• saveAsCsv() - Save JSON as CSV file
• createJsonToCsvStream() - Streaming conversion

CSV to JSON Conversion

• csvToJson() - Convert CSV string to JSON array
• readCsvAsJson() - Read CSV file as JSON
• csvToJsonIterator() - Async iterator for large files
• createCsvToJsonStream() - Streaming conversion

Format Support

• NDJSON: jsonToNdjson(), ndjsonToJson(), parseNdjsonStream()
• TSV: jsonToTsv(), tsvToJson(), validateTsv()

Streaming API

All streaming functions support backpressure and work with Node.js streams:

• streamJsonToCsv() - Pipe JSON to CSV
• streamCsvToJson() - Pipe CSV to JSON
• createNdjsonToCsvStream() - NDJSON to CSV transform stream

Security Features

• CSV injection prevention – automatic escaping of Excel formulas (=, +, -, @), enabled by default (preventCsvInjection: true)
• Path traversal protection – validation of file paths to prevent ../ attacks, restricts to .csv/.json extensions only
• RFC 4180 compliance – strict adherence to CSV standard with proper quote handling and line breaks (rfc4180Compliant: true)
• Automatic row shift repair – detects and corrects misaligned columns caused by missing quotes (repairRowShifts: true)
• Quote normalization – normalizes single quotes, backticks, and smart quotes to standard double quotes (normalizeQuotes: true)
• JSON Schema validation – validate input data against JSON schemas for data integrity

Type Safety

jtcsv provides complete TypeScript definitions:

import {
  jsonToCsv,
  csvToJson,
  JsonToCsvOptions,
  CsvToJsonOptions
} from 'jtcsv';

const options: JsonToCsvOptions = {
  delimiter: ',',
  preventCsvInjection: true
};

const csv = jsonToCsv(data, options);

Error Classes

jtcsv provides specialized error classes for better error handling:

• JtcsvError - Base error class
• ValidationError - Invalid input data
• SecurityError - Security violations
• ParsingError - CSV/JSON parsing failures
• FileSystemError - File operation errors
• LimitError - Exceeded limits
• ConfigurationError - Invalid options

Performance

jtcsv is optimized for high performance:

• 625,000 rows/sec for simple CSV parsing
• Fast-path engine for common CSV patterns
• Delimiter cache with 3.67x speedup
• Memory-efficient streaming for large files

Complete API Reference

Core Functions

• csvToJson() – Convert CSV string to JSON array
• jsonToCsv() – Convert JSON array to CSV string
• preprocessData() – Flatten nested objects before conversion
• deepUnwrap() – Internal utility for deep unwrapping

File I/O

• readCsvAsJson() – Read CSV file as JSON (async)
• readCsvAsJsonSync() – Synchronous file reading
• saveAsCsv() – Save JSON data as CSV file
• saveAsJson() – Save data as JSON file
• saveAsJsonSync() – Synchronous JSON save

Streaming

• createCsvToJsonStream() – Transform stream CSV→JSON
• createJsonToCsvStream() – Transform stream JSON→CSV
• streamCsvToJson() – Pipe CSV stream to JSON stream
• streamJsonToCsv() – Pipe JSON stream to CSV stream
• createCsvFileToJsonStream() – Stream CSV file to JSON objects
• createJsonReadableStream() – Create readable stream from JSON array
• createCsvCollectorStream() – Collect CSV output into buffer
• createJsonCollectorStream() – Collect JSON objects into array

NDJSON Support

• jsonToNdjson() – Convert JSON array to NDJSON string
• ndjsonToJson() – Parse NDJSON string to JSON array
• parseNdjsonStream() – Async iterator over NDJSON stream
• createNdjsonToCsvStream() – Transform NDJSON to CSV
• createCsvToNdjsonStream() – Transform CSV to NDJSON
• getNdjsonStats() – Statistics about NDJSON data

TSV Support

• jsonToTsv() – Convert JSON array to TSV string
• tsvToJson() – Parse TSV string to JSON array
• validateTsv() – Validate TSV structure
• isTsv() – Detect if string is likely TSV
• readTsvAsJson() – Read TSV file as JSON
• readTsvAsJsonSync() – Synchronous TSV file reading
• saveAsTsv() – Save JSON as TSV file
• saveAsTsvSync() – Synchronous TSV save
• createJsonToTsvStream() – Stream JSON to TSV
• createTsvToJsonStream() – Stream TSV to JSON

Error Handling

• JtcsvError, ValidationError, SecurityError, ParsingError, FileSystemError, LimitError, ConfigurationError – Specialized error classes
• createErrorMessage() – Create detailed error messages
• handleError() – Centralized error handler
• safeExecute() – Safe execution wrapper

Utilities

• autoDetectDelimiter() – Auto-detect CSV delimiter
• validateFilePath() – Security validation for file paths
• isEmail(), isUrl(), isDate() – Built-in validators
• createBatchProcessor() – Batch processing helper
• asyncIterUtils – Utilities for async iteration
• detectEncoding(), convertToUtf8() – Encoding utilities

For complete details, see the generated API documentation.

Browser Support

jtcsv works in browsers with Web Workers support:

import { jsonToCsv, csvToJson } from 'jtcsv/browser';

See the individual API documentation below for detailed usage information.