# FasterCSV 0.1.3--CSV parsing without the wait!

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastercsv-0-1-3-csv-parsing-without-the-wait/49114>\
**Category:** Ruby\
**Created:** [November 16, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastercsv-0-1-3-csv-parsing-without-the-wait/49114 "2005-11-16T21:34:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/bc8723/32.png) [@james](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/james)\
**Post date:** [November 16, 2005, 9:34pm UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/fastercsv-0-1-3-csv-parsing-without-the-wait/49114/1 "2005-11-16T21:34:27Z")

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# FasterCSV 0.1.3 Released

FasterCSV grew out of my involvement in a discussion on the Ruby Core  
mailing list. The heart of this new CSV parser is a single, hyper-  
optimized Regular Expression from “Mastering Regular Expressions,  
Second Edition,” further enhanced by myself.

This library would not exist if it weren’t for Ara.T.Howard’s  
tireless attempts to break it. 😉  
I’m very grateful for all the help and insight Ara gave that made a  
robust solution possible. Thank you!

If you use this library, don’t be shy with the feedback! Tell me  
what’s working and what’s not:

removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

## What is FasterCSV?

(from the README)

FasterCSV is intended as a replacement to Ruby’s standard CSV  
library. It was designed to address concerns users of that library  
had and it has three primary goals:

1. Be significantly faster than CSV while remaining a pure Ruby  
library.
  - There are unit tests ensuring this very thing. (Thanks for  
the idea Rob!)

  - It really is faster. I mean it:  
$ rake benchmark  
(in /Users/james/Documents/Ruby/faster\_csv)  
time ruby -r csv -e ‘CSV.foreach(“test/test\_data.csv”) { |  
row| }’

2. Use a smaller and easier to maintain code base.
  - I still want it to include all the CSV functionality you need  
though!  
(Do tell me if you find something missing.)
  - …And nice shiny new features!
  - Again, it really is smaller:  
$ rake stats  
(in /Users/james/Documents/Ruby/faster\_csv)  
±---------------------±------±------±--------±--------  
±----±------+  
| Name | Lines | LOC | Classes | Methods |  
M/C | LOC/M |  
±---------------------±------±------±--------±--------  
±----±------+  
| FasterCSV | 400 | 133 | 2 | 12  
| 6 | 9 |  
| Units | 439 | 334 | 5 | 23  
| 4 | 12 |  
±---------------------±------±------±--------±--------  
±----±------+  
| Total | 839 | 467 | 7 | 35  
| 5 | 11 |  
±---------------------±------±------±--------±--------  
±----±------+  
Code LOC: 133 Test LOC: 334 Code to Test Ratio: 1:2.5

3. Improve on the CSV interface.
  - My opinion, of course.

## Migrating from CSV to FasterCSV?

The README includes a section on the differences and you can read  
that here:

[http://fastercsv.rubyforge.org/](http://fastercsv.rubyforge.org/)

You call also see general usage in the documentation of the  
interface, right here:

[http://fastercsv.rubyforge.org/classes/FasterCSV.html](http://fastercsv.rubyforge.org/classes/FasterCSV.html)

If FasterCSV isn’t meeting your needs, I want to here about it:

removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid

## Coming soon!

(from the TODO)

- Add support for accessing fields by headers (from first row of  
document).  
(I promise Ara, it’s next on the list!)
- Add “convertors” for switching numbers to Integers or Floats, dates  
to Date or  
Time objects, etc.

## Where can I learn more?

FasterCSV is hosted on RubyForge.

Project page: [http://rubyforge.org/projects/fastercsv/](http://rubyforge.org/projects/fastercsv/)  
Documentation: [http://fastercsv.rubyforge.org/](http://fastercsv.rubyforge.org/)  
Downloads: [http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=1102](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=1102)

## How do I get FasterCSV?

FasterCSV is a gem, so as long as you have RubyGems installed it’s as  
simple as:

$ sudo gem install fastercsv

If you need to install RubyGems, you can download it from:

[http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=126&release\_id=2471](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=126&release_id=2471)

FasterCSV can also be installed manually. Just download the latest  
release and follow the instructions in INSTALL:

[http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group\_id=1102&release\_id=3545](http://rubyforge.org/frs/?group_id=1102&release_id=3545)

James Edward G. II