I am trying to parse a text file I loaded in Actionscript 3.0, help please

Question

All I can find information on for the URLLoader object in Actionsript 3.0 involves loading XML files, which I don't want to do. I'm trying to load in a .txt file that I want to parse, line by line with each line being delimited by a comma. Anyone know a method of doing this or a place where I can find some information on how to do this? Thanks!

Answer 1

Try this:

http://www.tinypixels.co.uk/products/flash/SimpleCsvLoader.php

Answer 2

Look at the String's split() methods for start. It splits a string into an array based on a delimiter. In your case you would access each line as an element of the array returned by using split() and the comma character.

e.g.

var csvLoader:URLLoader = new URLLoader(new URLRequest('yourFile.csv'));
csvLoader.addEventListener(Event.COMPLETE, csvLoaded);

function csvLoaded(event:Event):void{
   var lines:Array = String(event.target.data).split(',');
   var linesNum:int = lines.length;
   for(var i:int = 0 ; i < linesNum; i++){
      trace('line ' + i + ': ' + lines[i]);
   }
}

You can use event.target.data.split(','), I used String to make split()'s origin obvious.

@dhdean's tutorial is pretty cool, bare in mind that is as2.0, so there are slight differences with loading the file, but parsing strings should be pretty much the same in as2.0/as3.0

Depending on your comfort level with as3.0 you might want to have a look at csvlib.

HTH, George

Answer 3

For any example that you see that works with XML files, you just have to delete the line that says "new XML()"

For example, in this example at http://livedocs.adobe.com/flash/9.0/ActionScriptLangRefV3/flash/net/URLLoader.html#load()

You have the following example:

   private function loaderCompleteHandler(event:Event):void {

            try {
                externalXML = new XML(loader.data);
                readNodes(externalXML);    
            } catch (e:TypeError) {
                trace("Could not parse the XML file.");
            }
    }

Your text data is in the variable "loader.data"

Using

var arr:Array = loader.data.split(",");

will return an array that was delimited by a comma.