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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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Connect to CSV Data from PowerBuilder


This article demonstrates how to use the CData ODBC Driver for CSV to connect to CSV data and execute queries in PowerBuilder.

The CData ODBC Driver for CSV can be used from any platform or development technology that supports ODBC, including PowerBuilder. This article shows how to connect to CSV data and execute queries from the Database Painter and controls such as the DataWindow.

Connect to CSV as an ODBC Data Source

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.

Create a Profile for the ODBC Driver for CSV

Follow the steps below to use the Database Painter tool to create a database profile based on an ODBC DSN (data source name) for CSV. In the Database Painter, you can use wizards and the UI to work with CSV data.

  1. In PowerBuilder, click Tools -> Database Painter.
  2. In the Objects window in the Database Painter, right-click the ODBC node and click New Profile.
  3. On the Connection tab, enter a name for the profile and select the CSV DSN in the Data Source menu.
  4. To view and modify a table, right-click a table and then click Edit Data -> Grid.

Using CSV Data with PowerBuilder Controls

You can use standard PowerBuilder objects to connect to ODBC data sources and execute queries. The following example shows how to retrieve CSV data into a DataWindow. You can add the following code to the open method:

SQLCA.DBMS = "ODBC" SQLCA.DBParm = "ConnectString='DSN=CData CSV Source'" CONNECT USING SQLCA; dw_customer.SetTransObject(SQLCA); dw_customer.Retrieve();