title: how can i parse a csv with javascript for a non-web application?
body: <p>I am trying to write a script that will dynamically generate some InDesign templates using values contained within various columns of a local csv file.</p>
  
  <p>There seems to be a number of ways to approach this for a browser application, however, I can't find anything for non-web applications and all attempts thus far have failed.</p>
  
  <p>nb: data created on windows, using excel.  I'm editing on my linux box, and running the script on a mac so I need a solution that takes all this into account.</p>
  
  <p>This is what i have so far, incorporating some helpful code found here:
  <a href="http://www.bennadel.com/blog/1504-ask-ben-parsing-csv-strings-with-javascript-exec-regular-expression-command.htm" rel="nofollow">http://www.bennadel.com/blog/1504-ask-ben-parsing-csv-strings-with-javascript-exec-regular-expression-command.htm</a></p>
  
  <pre><code>// target the latest version of InDesign
  #target "InDesign-10"
  
  // This will parse a delimited string into an array of
  // arrays. The default delimiter is the comma, but this
  // can be overriden in the second argument.
  // http://www.bennadel.com/blog/1504-ask-ben-parsing-csv-strings-with-javascript-exec-regular-expression-command.htm
  
  function CSVToArray( strData, strDelimiter ){
      // Check to see if the delimiter is defined. If not,
      // then default to comma.
      strDelimiter = (strDelimiter || ",");
      // Create a regular expression to parse the CSV values.
      var objPattern = new RegExp(
          (
              // Delimiters.
              "(\\" + strDelimiter + "|\\r?\\n|\\r|^)" +
                  // Quoted fields.
                  "(?:\"([^\"]*(?:\"\"[^\"]*)*)\"|" +
                  // Standard fields.
                  "([^\"\\" + strDelimiter + "\\r\\n]*))"
          ),
          "gi"
      );
      // Create an array to hold our data. Give the array
      // a default empty first row.
      var arrData = [[]];
      // Create an array to hold our individual pattern
      // matching groups.
      var arrMatches = null;
      // Keep looping over the regular expression matches
      // until we can no longer find a match.
      while (arrMatches = objPattern.exec( strData )){
          // Get the delimiter that was found.
          var strMatchedDelimiter = arrMatches[ 1 ];
          // Check to see if the given delimiter has a length
          // (is not the start of string) and if it matches
          // field delimiter. If id does not, then we know
          // that this delimiter is a row delimiter.
          if (
              strMatchedDelimiter.length &amp;&amp;
                  (strMatchedDelimiter != strDelimiter)
          ){
              // Since we have reached a new row of data,
              // add an empty row to our data array.
              arrData.push( [] );
          }
          // Now that we have our delimiter out of the way,
          // let's check to see which kind of value we
          // captured (quoted or unquoted).
          if (arrMatches[ 2 ]){
              // We found a quoted value. When we capture
              // this value, unescape any double quotes.
              var strMatchedValue = arrMatches[ 2 ].replace(
                  new RegExp( "\"\"", "g" ),
                  "\""
              );
          } else {
              // We found a non-quoted value.
              var strMatchedValue = arrMatches[ 3 ];
          }
          // Now that we have our value string, let's add
          // it to the data array.
          arrData[ arrData.length - 1 ].push( strMatchedValue );
      }
      // Return the parsed data.
      return( arrData );
  } 
  
  var csv = CSVToArray(File("source.csv"), ",");
  
  // create new document using specified presets
  var myDocument              = app.documents.add();
  var myTextFrame             = myDocument.pages.item(0).textFrames.add();
  myTextFrame.geometricBounds =  ["6p", "6p", "24p", "24p"];
  myTextFrame.contents        = csv[0];
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>no worky, advice appreciated</p>