Hooks relying on a return value of false to skip entries makes parsing values that resolve to false impossible

[evanplaice]

From whitesid...@gmail.com on August 11, 2014 07:06:16

The onParseEntry callback function provides plenty of scope to parse entries to numerical values, Booleans, convert special cases to other values, etc, but since it always skips a value when a hook to boolean false, you cannot use it to handle values that parse to boolean false.

Repro example:

var ParseBool = function (value)
{
if (value == "true")
{
return true;
}
else if (value == "false")
{
return false;
}
else
{
return value;
}
}

var contentCSV = "index,isAwesome\n0,true\n,1,false";
var data = $csv.toObjects (contentCSV, {onParseValue : ParseBool});

This will produce a JSON array with two objects of structure { index : someIntString, isAwesome : someBool }, one which looks like {index : "0", isAwesome : true } and one that looks like {index : "1", isAwesome : 0 }.

It would be better is the library used undefined to decide when to skip a value, or simply didn't have a skip-value check when parsing values, as it makes less sense to skip parsing specific values than it does to skip entire entries, for example. I've commented out the if hook !=== false line at 474 of the source (in the endOfValue function of parseEntry) and it gives no detrimental effects.

Original issue: http://code.google.com/p/jquery-csv/issues/detail?id=43

[evanplaice]

Good point...

Changing the skip indicator value to null instead of false.

This will break the current API so it should be included in the next major version.