I would like to read a very, very large file into a JavaScript array in node.js.
So, if the file is like this:
first line
two
three
...
...
I would have the array:
['first line','two','three', ... , ... ]
The function would look like this:
var array = load(filename);
Therefore the idea of loading it all as a string and then splitting it is not acceptable.
var fs = require('fs');
var array = fs.readFileSync('file.txt').toString().split("\n");
for(i in array) {
console.log(array[i]);
}
var fs = require('fs');
fs.readFile('file.txt', function(err, data) {
if(err) throw err;
var array = data.toString().split("\n");
for(i in array) {
console.log(array[i]);
}
});
os.EOL instead of that monstruosity?If you can fit the final data into an array then wouldn't you also be able to fit it in a string and split it, as has been suggested? In any case if you would like to process the file one line at a time you can also try something like this:
var fs = require('fs');
function readLines(input, func) {
var remaining = '';
input.on('data', function(data) {
remaining += data;
var index = remaining.indexOf('\n');
while (index > -1) {
var line = remaining.substring(0, index);
remaining = remaining.substring(index + 1);
func(line);
index = remaining.indexOf('\n');
}
});
input.on('end', function() {
if (remaining.length > 0) {
func(remaining);
}
});
}
function func(data) {
console.log('Line: ' + data);
}
var input = fs.createReadStream('lines.txt');
readLines(input, func);
EDIT: (in response to comment by phopkins) I think (at least in newer versions) substring does not copy data but creates a special SlicedString object (from a quick glance at the v8 source code). In any case here is a modification that avoids the mentioned substring (tested on a file several megabytes worth of "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy"):
function readLines(input, func) {
var remaining = '';
input.on('data', function(data) {
remaining += data;
var index = remaining.indexOf('\n');
var last = 0;
while (index > -1) {
var line = remaining.substring(last, index);
last = index + 1;
func(line);
index = remaining.indexOf('\n', last);
}
remaining = remaining.substring(last);
});
input.on('end', function() {
if (remaining.length > 0) {
func(remaining);
}
});
}
Using the Node.js readline module.
var fs = require('fs');
var readline = require('readline');
var filename = process.argv[2];
readline.createInterface({
input: fs.createReadStream(filename),
terminal: false
}).on('line', function(line) {
console.log('Line: ' + line);
});
\n at the end! See: stackoverflow.com/questions/18450197/…
js:
var array = fs.readFileSync('file.txt', 'utf8').split('\n');
ts:
var array = fs.readFileSync('file.txt', 'utf8').toString().split('\n');
TypeError: fs.readFileSync(...).split is not a function, you should use .toString() like this: var array = fs.readFileSync('file.txt', 'utf8').toString().split('\n');Essentially this will do the job: .replace(/\r\n/g,'\n').split('\n').
This works on Mac, Linux & Windows.
Code Snippets
Synchronous:
const { readFileSync } = require('fs');
const array = readFileSync('file.txt').toString().replace(/\r\n/g,'\n').split('\n');
for(let i of array) {
console.log(i);
}
Asynchronous:
With the fs.promises API that provides an alternative set of asynchronous file system methods that return Promise objects rather than using callbacks. (No need to promisify, you can use async-await with this too, available on and after Node.js version 10.0.0)
const { readFile } = require('fs').promises;
readFile('file.txt', function(err, data) {
if(err) throw err;
const arr = data.toString().replace(/\r\n/g,'\n').split('\n');
for(let i of arr) {
console.log(i);
}
});
More about \r & \n here: \r\n, \r and \n what is the difference between them?
use readline (documentation). here's an example reading a css file, parsing for icons and writing them to json
var results = [];
var rl = require('readline').createInterface({
input: require('fs').createReadStream('./assets/stylesheets/_icons.scss')
});
// for every new line, if it matches the regex, add it to an array
// this is ugly regex :)
rl.on('line', function (line) {
var re = /\.icon-icon.*:/;
var match;
if ((match = re.exec(line)) !== null) {
results.push(match[0].replace(".",'').replace(":",''));
}
});
// readline emits a close event when the file is read.
rl.on('close', function(){
var outputFilename = './icons.json';
fs.writeFile(outputFilename, JSON.stringify(results, null, 2), function(err) {
if(err) {
console.log(err);
} else {
console.log("JSON saved to " + outputFilename);
}
});
});
file.lines with my JFile package
var JFile=require('jfile');
var myF=new JFile("./data.txt");
myF.lines // ["first line","second line"] ....
Don't forget before :
npm install jfile --save
With a BufferedReader, but the function should be asynchronous:
var load = function (file, cb){
var lines = [];
new BufferedReader (file, { encoding: "utf8" })
.on ("error", function (error){
cb (error, null);
})
.on ("line", function (line){
lines.push (line);
})
.on ("end", function (){
cb (null, lines);
})
.read ();
};
load ("file", function (error, lines){
if (error) return console.log (error);
console.log (lines);
});
To read a big file into array you can read line by line or chunk by chunk.
line by line refer to my answer here
var fs = require('fs'),
es = require('event-stream'),
var lines = [];
var s = fs.createReadStream('filepath')
.pipe(es.split())
.pipe(es.mapSync(function(line) {
//pause the readstream
s.pause();
lines.push(line);
s.resume();
})
.on('error', function(err) {
console.log('Error:', err);
})
.on('end', function() {
console.log('Finish reading.');
console.log(lines);
})
);
chunk by chunk refer to this article
var offset = 0;
var chunkSize = 2048;
var chunkBuffer = new Buffer(chunkSize);
var fp = fs.openSync('filepath', 'r');
var bytesRead = 0;
while(bytesRead = fs.readSync(fp, chunkBuffer, 0, chunkSize, offset)) {
offset += bytesRead;
var str = chunkBuffer.slice(0, bytesRead).toString();
var arr = str.split('\n');
if(bytesRead = chunkSize) {
// the last item of the arr may be not a full line, leave it to the next chunk
offset -= arr.pop().length;
}
lines.push(arr);
}
console.log(lines);
This is a variation on the answer above by @mtomis.
It creates a stream of lines. It emits 'data' and 'end' events, allowing you to handle the end of the stream.
var events = require('events');
var LineStream = function (input) {
var remaining = '';
input.on('data', function (data) {
remaining += data;
var index = remaining.indexOf('\n');
var last = 0;
while (index > -1) {
var line = remaining.substring(last, index);
last = index + 1;
this.emit('data', line);
index = remaining.indexOf('\n', last);
}
remaining = remaining.substring(last);
}.bind(this));
input.on('end', function() {
if (remaining.length > 0) {
this.emit('data', remaining);
}
this.emit('end');
}.bind(this));
}
LineStream.prototype = new events.EventEmitter;
Use it as a wrapper:
var lineInput = new LineStream(input);
lineInput.on('data', function (line) {
// handle line
});
lineInput.on('end', function() {
// wrap it up
});
var EventEmitter = require('events').EventEmitter; var util = require('util'); function GoodEmitter() { EventEmitter.call(this); } util.inherits(GoodEmitter, EventEmitter);
var li1 = new LineStream(input1), li2 = new LineStream(input2); then count how many times 'end' is fired for each onevar fs = require('fs'); var input1 = fs.createReadStream('text.txt'); var ls1 = new LineStream(input1); ls1.on('data', function (line) { console.log('1:line=' + line); }); ls1.on('end', function (line) { console.log('1:fin'); }); var input2 = fs.createReadStream('text.txt'); var ls2 = new LineStream(input2); ls2.on('data', function (line) { console.log('2:line=' + line); }); ls2.on('end', function (line) { console.log('2:fin'); }); output: each line in the text file was fired once for each instance. so was 'end'.i just want to add @finbarr great answer, a little fix in the asynchronous example:
Asynchronous:
var fs = require('fs');
fs.readFile('file.txt', function(err, data) {
if(err) throw err;
var array = data.toString().split("\n");
for(i in array) {
console.log(array[i]);
}
done();
});
@MadPhysicist, done() is what releases the async. call.
Using Node.js v8 or later has a new feature that converts normal function into an async function.
It's an awesome feature. Here's the example of parsing 10000 numbers from the txt file into an array, counting inversions using merge sort on the numbers.
// read from txt file
const util = require('util');
const fs = require('fs')
fs.readFileAsync = util.promisify(fs.readFile);
let result = []
const parseTxt = async (csvFile) => {
let fields, obj
const data = await fs.readFileAsync(csvFile)
const str = data.toString()
const lines = str.split('\r\n')
// const lines = str
console.log("lines", lines)
// console.log("str", str)
lines.map(line => {
if(!line) {return null}
result.push(Number(line))
})
console.log("result",result)
return result
}
parseTxt('./count-inversion.txt').then(() => {
console.log(mergeSort({arr: result, count: 0}))
})
I had the same problem, and I have solved it with the module line-by-line
https://www.npmjs.com/package/line-by-line
At least for me works like a charm, both in synchronous and asynchronous mode.
Also, the problem with lines terminating not terminating \n can be solved with the option:
{ encoding: 'utf8', skipEmptyLines: false }
Synchronous processing of lines:
var LineByLineReader = require('line-by-line'),
lr = new LineByLineReader('big_file.txt');
lr.on('error', function (err) {
// 'err' contains error object
});
lr.on('line', function (line) {
// 'line' contains the current line without the trailing newline character.
});
lr.on('end', function () {
// All lines are read, file is closed now.
});
To put each line as an item inside an array, a new function was added in Node.js v18.11.0 to read files line by line
This is how you use this with a text file you want to read a file and put each line in an array
import { open } from 'node:fs/promises';
const arr = [];
myFilereader();
async function myFileReader() {
const file = await open('./TextFileName.txt');
for await (const line of file.readLines()) {
arr.push(line);
}
console.log(arr)
}
To understand more read Node.js documentation here is the link for file system readlines(): https://nodejs.org/api/fs.html#filehandlereadlinesoptions
Another answer using an npm package. The nexline package allows one to asynchronously read a file line-by-line:
"use strict";
import fs from 'fs';
import nexline from 'nexline';
const lines = [];
const reader = nexline({
input: fs.createReadStream(`path/to/file.ext`)
});
while(true) {
const line = await reader.next();
if(line === null) break; // line is null if we reach the end
if(line.length === 0) continue; // Ignore empty lines
// Process the line here - below is just an example
lines.push(line);
}
This approach will work even if your text file is larger than the maximum allowed string length, thereby avoiding the Error: Cannot create a string longer than 0x1fffffe8 characters error.
