Import CSV into Vertica using Rfc4180CsvParser and exclude header row - c++

Question

Is there a way to exclude the header row when importing data via the Rfc4180CsvParser? The COPY command has a SKIP option but the option doesn't seem to work when using the CSV parsers provided in the Vertica SDK.
Background
As background, the COPY command does not read CSV files by itself. For simple CSV files, one can say COPY schema.table FROM '/data/myfile.csv' DELIMITER ',' ENCLOSED BY '"'; but this will fail with data files which have string values with embedded quotes.
Adding ESCAPE AS '"' will generate an error ERROR 3169: ENCLOSED BY and ESCAPE AS can not be the same value . This is a problem as CSV values are enclosed and escaped by ".
Vertica SDK CsvParser extensions to the rescue
Vertica provides an SDK under /opt/vertica/sdk/examples with C++ programs that can be compiled into extensions. One of these is /opt/vertica/sdk/examples/ParserFunctions/Rfc4180CsvParser.cpp.
This works great as follows:
cd /opt/vertica/sdk/examples
make clean
vsql
==> CREATE LIBRARY Rfc4180CsvParserLib AS '/opt/vertica/sdk/examples/build/Rfc4180CsvParser.so';
==> COPY myschema.mytable FROM '/data/myfile.csv' WITH PARSER Rfc4180CsvParser();
Problem
The above works great except that it imports the first row of the data file as a row. The COPY command has a SKIP 1 option but this does not work with the parser.
Question
Is it possble to edit Rfc4180CsvParser.cpp to skip the first row, or better yet, take some parameter to specify number of rows to skip?
The program is just 135 lines but I don't see where/how to make this incision. Hints?
Copying the entire program below as I don't see a public repo to link to...
Rfc4180CsvParser.cpp
/* Copyright (c) 2005 - 2012 Vertica, an HP company -*- C++ -*- */
#include "Vertica.h"
#include "StringParsers.h"
#include "csv.h"
using namespace Vertica;
// Note, the class template is mostly for demonstration purposes,
// so that the same class can use each of two string-parsers.
// Custom parsers can also just pick a string-parser to use.
/**
* A parser that parses something approximating the "official" CSV format
* as defined in IETF RFC-4180: <http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180>
* Oddly enough, many "CSV" files don't actually conform to this standard
* for one reason or another. But for sources that do, this parser should
* be able to handle the data.
* Note that the CSV format does not specify how to handle different
* data types; it is entirely a string-based format.
* So we just use standard parsers based on the corresponding column type.
*/
template <class StringParsersImpl>
class LibCSVParser : public UDParser {
public:
LibCSVParser() : colNum(0) {}
// Keep a copy of the information about each column.
// Note that Vertica doesn't let us safely keep a reference to
// the internal copy of this data structure that it shows us.
// But keeping a copy is fine.
SizedColumnTypes colInfo;
// An instance of the class containing the methods that we're
// using to parse strings to the various relevant data types
StringParsersImpl sp;
/// Current column index
size_t colNum;
/// Parsing state for libcsv
struct csv_parser parser;
// Format strings
std::vector<std::string> formatStrings;
/**
* Given a field in string form (a pointer to the first character and
* a length), submit that field to Vertica.
* `colNum` is the column number from the input file; how many fields
* it is into the current record.
*/
bool handleField(size_t colNum, char* start, size_t len) {
if (colNum >= colInfo.getColumnCount()) {
// Ignore column overflow
return false;
}
// Empty colums are null.
if (len==0) {
writer->setNull(colNum);
return true;
} else {
return parseStringToType(start, len, colNum, colInfo.getColumnType(c
olNum), writer, sp);
}
}
static void handle_record(void *data, size_t len, void *p) {
static_cast<LibCSVParser*>(p)->handleField(static_cast<LibCSVParser*>(p)
->colNum++, (char*)data, len);
}
static void handle_end_of_row(int c, void *p) {
// Ignore 'c' (the terminating character); trust that it's correct
static_cast<LibCSVParser*>(p)->colNum = 0;
static_cast<LibCSVParser*>(p)->writer->next();
}
virtual StreamState process(ServerInterface &srvInterface, DataBuffer &input
, InputState input_state) {
size_t processed;
while ((processed = csv_parse(&parser, input.buf + input.offset, input.s
ize - input.offset,
handle_record, handle_end_of_row, this)) > 0) {
input.offset += processed;
}
if (input_state == END_OF_FILE && input.size == input.offset) {
csv_fini(&parser, handle_record, handle_end_of_row, this);
return DONE;
}
return INPUT_NEEDED;
}
virtual void setup(ServerInterface &srvInterface, SizedColumnTypes &returnTy
pe);
virtual void destroy(ServerInterface &srvInterface, SizedColumnTypes &return
Type) {
csv_free(&parser);
}
};
template <class StringParsersImpl>
void LibCSVParser<StringParsersImpl>::setup(ServerInterface &srvInterface, Sized
ColumnTypes &returnType) {
csv_init(&parser, CSV_APPEND_NULL);
colInfo = returnType;
}
template <>
void LibCSVParser<FormattedStringParsers>::setup(ServerInterface &srvInterface,
SizedColumnTypes &returnType) {
csv_init(&parser, CSV_APPEND_NULL);
colInfo = returnType;
if (formatStrings.size() != returnType.getColumnCount()) {
formatStrings.resize(returnType.getColumnCount(), "");
}
sp.setFormats(formatStrings);
}
template <class StringParsersImpl>
class LibCSVParserFactoryTmpl : public ParserFactory {
public:
virtual void plan(ServerInterface &srvInterface,
PerColumnParamReader &perColumnParamReader,
PlanContext &planCtxt) {}
virtual UDParser* prepare(ServerInterface &srvInterface,
PerColumnParamReader &perColumnParamReader,
PlanContext &planCtxt,
const SizedColumnTypes &returnType)
{
return vt_createFuncObj(srvInterface.allocator,
LibCSVParser<StringParsersImpl>);
}
};
typedef LibCSVParserFactoryTmpl<StringParsers> LibCSVParserFactory;
RegisterFactory(LibCSVParserFactory);
typedef LibCSVParserFactoryTmpl<FormattedStringParsers> FormattedLibCSVParserFac
tory;
RegisterFactory(FormattedLibCSVParserFactory);

Answer 1

The quick and dirty way would be to just hardcode it. It's using a callback to handle_end_of_row. Track the row number and just don't process the first row . Something like:
static void handle_end_of_row(int c, void *ptr) {
// Ignore 'c' (the terminating character); trust that it's correct
LibCSVParser *p = static_cast<LibCSVParser*>(ptr);
p->colNum = 0;
if (rowcnt <= 0) {
p->bad_field = "";
rowcnt++;
} else if (p->bad_field.empty()) {
p->writer->next();
} else {
// libcsv doesn't give us the whole row to reject.
// So just write to the log.
// TODO: Come up with something more clever.
if (p->currSrvInterface) {
p->currSrvInterface->log("Invalid CSV field value: '%s' Row skipped.",
p->bad_field.c_str());
}
p->bad_field = "";
}
}
Also, best to initialize rownum = 0 in process since I think it will call this for each file in your COPY statement. There might be more clever ways of doing this. Basically, this will just process the record and then discard it.
As for supporting SKIP generically... look at TraditionalCSVParser for how to handle parameter passing. You'd have to add it to the parser factor prepare and send in the value to the LibCSVParser class and override getParameterType. Then in LibCSVParser you need to accept the parameter in the constructor, and modify process to skip the first skip rows. Then use that value instead of the hardcoded 0 above.