Using Ruby CSV header converters - ruby

Question

Say I have the following class:
class Buyer < ActiveRecord::Base
attr_accesible :first_name, :last_name
and the following in a CSV file:
First Name,Last Name
John,Doe
Jane,Doe
I want to save the contents of the CSV into the database. I have the following in a Rake file:
namespace :migration do
desc "Migrate CSV data"
task :import, [:model, :file_path] => :environment do |t, args|
require 'csv'
model = args.model.constantize
path = args.file_path
CSV.foreach(path, :headers => true,
:converters => :all,
:header_converters => lambda { |h| h.downcase.gsub(' ', '_') }
) do |row|
model.create!(row.to_hash)
end
end
end
I am getting an undefined method 'downcase' for nil:NilClass. If I exclude the header converters then I get unknown attribute 'First Name'. What's the correct syntax for converting a header from, say, First Name to first_name?

Answer 1

After doing some research here in my desktop, it seems to me the error is for something else.
First I put the data in my "a.txt" file as below :
First Name,Last Name
John,Doe
Jane,Doe
Now I ran the code, which is saved in my so.rb file.
so.rb
require 'csv'
CSV.foreach("C:\\Users\\arup\\a.txt",
:headers => true,
:converters => :all,
:header_converters => lambda { |h| h.downcase.gsub(' ', '_') }
) do |row|
p row
end
Now running the :
C:\Users\arup>ruby -v so.rb
ruby 1.9.3p448 (2013-06-27) [i386-mingw32]
#<CSV::Row "first_name":"John" "last_name":"Doe">
#<CSV::Row "first_name":"Jane" "last_name":"Doe">
So everything is working now. Now let me reproduce the error :
I put the data in my "a.txt" file as below ( just added a , after the last column) :
First Name,Last Name,
John,Doe
Jane,Doe
Now I ran the code, which is saved in my so.rb file, again.
C:\Users\arup>ruby -v so.rb
ruby 1.9.3p448 (2013-06-27) [i386-mingw32]
so.rb:5:in `block in <main>': undefined method `downcase' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)
It seems, in your header row, there is blank column value which is causing the error. Thus if you have a control to the source CSV file, check there the same. Or do some change in your code, to handle the error as below :
require 'csv'
CSV.foreach("C:\\Users\\arup\\a.txt",
:headers => true,
:converters => :all,
:header_converters => lambda { |h| h.downcase.gsub(' ', '_') unless h.nil? }
) do |row|
p row
end

Answer 2

A more general answer, but if you have code that you need to process as text, and sometimes you might get a nil in there, then call to_s on the object. This will turn nil into an empty string. eg
h.to_s.downcase.gsub(' ', '_')
This will never blow up, whatever h is, because every class in ruby has the to_s method, and it always returns a string (unless you've overridden it to do something else, which would be unadvisable).

Answer 3

Passing :symbol to :header_converters will automatically convert to strings to snake case as well.
options = {:headers => true,
:header_converters => :symbol}
CSV.foreach(filepath, options) ...
#<CSV::Row first_name:"John" last_name:"Doe">
#<CSV::Row first_name:"Jane" last_name:"Doe">