Access parsed csv file in browser's console

Question

I am following this tutorial to plot csv file using d3.js. required files are listed below (d3 is needed of course):

index.html:

<!DOCTYPE html>
<meta charset="utf-8">
<style> /* set the CSS */

body { font: 12px Arial;}

path {
    stroke: steelblue;
    stroke-width: 2;
    fill: none;
}

.axis path,
.axis line {
    fill: none;
    stroke: grey;
    stroke-width: 1;
    shape-rendering: crispEdges;
}

</style>
<body>

<!-- load the d3.js library -->
<script src="http://d3js.org/d3.v3.min.js"></script>

<script>

// Set the dimensions of the canvas / graph
var margin = {top: 30, right: 20, bottom: 30, left: 50},
    width = 600 - margin.left - margin.right,
    height = 270 - margin.top - margin.bottom;

// Parse the date / time
var parseDate = d3.time.format("%d-%b-%y").parse;

// Set the ranges
var x = d3.time.scale().range([0, width]);
var y = d3.scale.linear().range([height, 0]);

// Define the axes
var xAxis = d3.svg.axis().scale(x)
    .orient("bottom").ticks(5);

var yAxis = d3.svg.axis().scale(y)
    .orient("left").ticks(5);

// Define the line
var valueline = d3.svg.line()
    .x(function(d) { return x(d.date); })
    .y(function(d) { return y(d.close); });

// Adds the svg canvas
var svg = d3.select("body")
    .append("svg")
        .attr("width", width + margin.left + margin.right)
        .attr("height", height + margin.top + margin.bottom)
    .append("g")
        .attr("transform",
              "translate(" + margin.left + "," + margin.top + ")");

// Get the data
d3.csv("data.csv", function(error, data) {
    data.forEach(function(d) {
        d.date = parseDate(d.date);
        d.close = +d.close;
    });

    // Scale the range of the data
    x.domain(d3.extent(data, function(d) { return d.date; }));
    y.domain([0, d3.max(data, function(d) { return d.close; })]);

    // Add the valueline path.
    svg.append("path")
        .attr("class", "line")
        .attr("d", valueline(data));

    // Add the X Axis
    svg.append("g")
        .attr("class", "x axis")
        .attr("transform", "translate(0," + height + ")")
        .call(xAxis);

    // Add the Y Axis
    svg.append("g")
        .attr("class", "y axis")
        .call(yAxis);

});

</script>
</body>

data.csv

date,close
1-May-12,58.13
30-Apr-12,53.98
27-Apr-12,67.00
26-Apr-12,89.70
25-Apr-12,99.00
24-Apr-12,130.28
23-Apr-12,166.70
20-Apr-12,234.98
19-Apr-12,345.44
18-Apr-12,443.34
17-Apr-12,543.70
16-Apr-12,580.13
13-Apr-12,605.23
12-Apr-12,622.77
11-Apr-12,626.20
10-Apr-12,628.44
9-Apr-12,636.23
5-Apr-12,633.68
4-Apr-12,624.31
3-Apr-12,629.32
2-Apr-12,618.63
30-Mar-12,599.55
29-Mar-12,609.86
28-Mar-12,617.62
27-Mar-12,614.48
26-Mar-12,606.98

The additional function i wish to achieve on top of this is that i can save the csv file in a variable (say datasets) and hence can access from terminal (opened from f12 -> console using chrome). The reason i wish to do so is to know the format of the output variable so that i can do things on top of the existing variable, a typical thing to do in python (or matlab, fortran). without the variable (or even just the format of it), i can not keep the ball rolling:

I have tried below follow this guideline:

var dataset = []
d3.csv("data.csv", function(error, data) {
    data.forEach(function(d) {
        d.date = parseDate(d.date);
        d.close = +d.close;
    });
console.log(dataset)
})

it does not work. what should i do or follow up? thanks!

score 2 · Accepted Answer · edited Sep 28 '17 at 17:47

If you look at the guideline you shared, you're gonna see that the code asigns dataset to a map from the data variable:

dataset = data.map(function(d) { etc...

However, in your code, you initialize dataset as an empty array:

var dataset = [];

And it keeps being an empty array inside the d3.csv function:

d3.csv("data.csv", function(error, data) {
    data.forEach(function(d) {
        d.date = parseDate(d.date);
        d.close = +d.close;
    });
    console.log(dataset)//there is nothing changing 'dataset' in this function
});

As a solution, you can create a new reference:

var dataset = []
d3.csv("data.csv", function(error, data) {
    data.forEach(function(d) {
        d.date = parseDate(d.date);
        d.close = +d.close;
    });
    dataset = data;//now, 'dataset' is another name to the 'data' array
    console.log(dataset)
})

However, this is not necessary, mainly because you're not copying data, but simply creating a new reference to it. Thus, the easiest solution is simply logging data:

d3.csv("data.csv", function(error, data) {
    data.forEach(function(d) {
        d.date = parseDate(d.date);
        d.close = +d.close;
    });
    console.log(data)
})

Access parsed csv file in browser's console

1 Answers1