How to export JavaScript array info to csv (on client side)?

Question

I know there are lot of questions of this nature but I need to do this using JavaScript. I am using Dojo 1.8 and have all the attribute info in array, which looks like this:

[["name1", "city_name1", ...]["name2", "city_name2", ...]]

Any idea how I can export this to CSV on the client side?

Answer 1

You can do this in native JavaScript. You'll have to parse your data into correct CSV format as so (assuming you are using an array of arrays for your data as you have described in the question):

const rows = [
    ["name1", "city1", "some other info"],
    ["name2", "city2", "more info"]
];

let csvContent = "data:text/csv;charset=utf-8,";

rows.forEach(function(rowArray) {
    let row = rowArray.join(",");
    csvContent += row + "\r\n";
});

or the shorter way (using arrow functions):

const rows = [
    ["name1", "city1", "some other info"],
    ["name2", "city2", "more info"]
];

let csvContent = "data:text/csv;charset=utf-8," 
    + rows.map(e => e.join(",")).join("\n");

Then you can use JavaScript's window.open and encodeURI functions to download the CSV file like so:

var encodedUri = encodeURI(csvContent);
window.open(encodedUri);

Edit:

If you want to give your file a specific name, you have to do things a little differently since this is not supported accessing a data URI using the window.open method. In order to achieve this, you can create a hidden <a> DOM node and set its download attribute as follows:

var encodedUri = encodeURI(csvContent);
var link = document.createElement("a");
link.setAttribute("href", encodedUri);
link.setAttribute("download", "my_data.csv");
document.body.appendChild(link); // Required for FF

link.click(); // This will download the data file named "my_data.csv".