Reading values from a single column in a CSV file fails

Usage & Issues
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#1

Hi everyone,

I am trying to read data values from a CSV file into ImageJ. First I had some issues with the table header in the first line. It seems ImageJ does not interpret UTF-8 BOM format correctly (showing  in the first header), so I converted to UTF-8 without BOM using Notepad++. Next I ran into an issue I have been unable to solve. As long as the file contains at least 2 values per line (2 columns separated by a comma) it al works fine. As soon as there is only 1 value per line an error is shown;

“This is not a tab or comma delimited file”

Uh, yeah OK, there is indeed no tab or comma. It is a single value per line. That behaviour is a bit odd. Is this by design? Or is it a bug?

Any ideas for a workaround? Is there a plugin for more robust CSV file handing? (have not found one)

#2

Please update to ImageJ version 1.52k.

Regards

Herbie

#3

OK, had version 1.52i installed (the updater had not notified me there was a [minor] update). Have now initiated a manual update. Indeed this version solves the issue having a single value per line. Great, and thanks for such a swift answer. UTF-BBOM still is a thingy on the todo list I guess?

While I was experimenting with different csv formats I discovered another possible issue … if you have a single line starting with a label (e.g. SAMPLE1, 4,8,3,9,3) then an empty result table is shown and there is no error. I know this is not a correct format so expected an error and not an empty table.

#4

UTF-BBOM still is a thingy on the todo list I guess?

I don’t think so.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byte_order_mark:

The Unicode Standard permits the BOM in UTF-8 but does not require or recommend its use. Byte order has no meaning in UTF-8, […]

Regards

Herbie

#5

As a note to my future self and others who might come across the issue.

If you created the csv with excel, don’t use the format “csv (UTF-8)”, rather the shorter “csv” option.

For an existing file, the encoding can be converted from UTF-8 BOM to UTF-8 in notepad++ menu “Encoding” as explained above by @kostermw.