Javascript Exporting data to a CSV file

Question

I've found some code in here on how to export data from an array to a CSV file. I just have a few problems that needs to be address since I'm not very familiar with the code that I got.

            listofconstraints.forEach(function(infoArray, index){
               dataString = infoArray.join(",");
               csvContent += dataString + "\n";
            }); 
            var encodedUri = encodeURI(csvContent);
            var link = document.createElement("a");
            link.setAttribute("href", encodedUri);
            link.setAttribute("download", "listofconstraints.csv");

            link.click();

It works properly but it lacks some of the features that I need including, checking if the file already exists, setting the path of the file, and if it does exists, overwriting it.

I hope none of the datafields can ever have a , ' or " in them - this simplistic csv creator will fail creating a valid csv file if they do - it will still create the file and download will happen ... just that things like excel will not read the file as intended — Jaromanda X
– Jaromanda X, Commented Nov 22, 2015 at 8:29

aurelius · Accepted Answer · 2015-11-22 07:47:58Z

1

JavaScript cannot exert any control over the visitor's local filesystem. Visitor remains in complete control of where downloaded files go, what they are named, and indeed whether he even wants to download them in the first place.

When you download a file from any web site, the browser asks you where you want to store the file, and if in that location there is another file named like it already then it will rename your file like file (0).csv

answered Nov 22, 2015 at 7:47

aurelius

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2 Comments

Colin James Naranjo Over a year ago

Thank you, I guess I just needed to confirm that it is indeed impossible. Is it possible to know though the computer's download location?

aurelius Over a year ago

think about that the web page should be agnostic of the file system on the clients machine, you can only ask the browser to give you it's default download url which differs from OS to OS

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