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CSV/TSV Files Icon CSV ODBC Driver

The CSV ODBC Driver is a powerful tool that allows you to connect with live flat-file delimited data (CSV/TSV files), directly from any applications that support ODBC connectivity.

Access flat-file data like you would any standard database - read, write, and update etc. through a standard ODBC Driver interface.

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Viewing CSV Data in RAD Studio Data Explorer


How to view CSV data in RAD Studio Data Explorer using the CData ODBC Driver for CSV.

Embarcadero RAD Studio provides a development environment for Delphi and C++Builder applications. With the CData ODBC Driver for CSV, you gain access to live CSV data within RAD Studio, abstracting the data into tables, views, and stored procedures that can be used to both retrieve CSV data. This article will walk through connecting to CSV using the Data Explorer.

Configure a Connection to CSV

If you have not already, first specify connection properties in an ODBC DSN (data source name). This is the last step of the driver installation. You can use the Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator to create and configure ODBC DSNs.

The DataSource property must be set to a valid local folder name.

Also, specify the IncludeFiles property to work with text files having extensions that differ from .csv, .tab, or .txt. Specify multiple file extensions in a comma-separated list. You can also set Extended Properties compatible with the Microsoft Jet OLE DB 4.0 driver. Alternatively, you can provide the format of text files in a Schema.ini file.

Set UseRowNumbers to true if you are deleting or updating in CSV. This will create a new column with the name RowNumber which will be used as key for that table.

Connecting to CSV Data Using Data Explorer

You can create a simple application for displaying CSV data by utilizing the CData FireDAC Components for CSV and a new VCL Forms Application:

  1. Open the Data Explorer in RAD Studio and expand FireDAC.
  2. Right-click the ODBC Data Source node in the Data Explorer.
  3. Click Add New Connection.
  4. Enter a name for the connection.
  5. In the FireDAC Connection Editor that appears, set the DataSource property to the name of the ODBC DSN for CSV.
  6. Back in the Data Explorer, expand the views for the connection.

  7. Create a new VCL Forms application and drag a view (for example: Customer) onto the form.

  8. Select the CustomerView object on the form and set the Active property to true.

  9. Right-click on the object, bind visually, and link everything (*) to a new control (TStringGrid).

  10. Arrange the TStringGrid on the form and run the application to see the Customer data.