Comma-delimited (CSV) files are commonly used as a mechanism to
exchange data between disparate applications. Many applications may
not support newer formats like XML and it may be necessary to use CSV
files to interact with these applications. Ferrite includes powerful CSV processing
features to ease data transformation tasks commonly required in
enterprises.
In addition to being able to process common CSV formats, Ferrite includes features to extract row and column data from text
documents. An essential requirement for processing text documents for
this purpose is the ability to massage data to enable parsing. Ferrite
includes general purpose text manipulation features including regular
expression search, cut and paste. Another critical requirement is the
ability to handle records spanning multiple
lines using an arbitrary regular expression as the record delimiter.
Once tabular data has been extracted from a CSV delimited file (or a
text document), Ferrite offers powerful
primitives for processing the data. Instructions for processing data
use JavaScript, the standard language used in websites. Examples of
operations which can be performed include:
- Select records based on the value of one or more
fields. Arbitrarily complex JavaScript expressions can be used in
evaluating the records for selection.
- Add or drop fields.
- Add or drop records.
- Use regular expressions to process record or field data.
- And much more.
These features combined with the ability to generate CSV files from
arbitrary row and column data makes Ferrite indispensable as a general purpose text
transformation tool.
