javascript function to parse csv string into array of objects (demo: http://www.codekraft.it/demos/parsecsv)

parsecsv.js

/**
 * Parse a csv string to array of objects
 * optionally enclosed by quotes
 * delimited by user selectable character
 */
function parseCSV(string, delimiter) {

	var lines = string.split(/\r\n|\n/), // get all the lines
		colnames = [], // the columns names array
		result = []; // the result array

	if( !lines.length ) { return; }

	delimiter = delimiter || ',';

	var valueReg = new RegExp(

		"(?!\\s*$)\\s*" + // exlude empty spaces

		"(?:'([^'\\\\]*(?:\\\\[\\S\\s][^'\\\\]*)*)'|" + // enclosed by ''

		"\"([^\"\\\\]*(?:\\\\\[\\S\\s][^\"\\\\]*)*)\"|" + // enclosed by ""

		"([^" + delimiter + "'\"\\s\\\\]*(?:\\s+[^" + delimiter + "'\"\\s\\\\]+)*))\\s*" + // not enclosed

		"(?:" + delimiter + "|$)", // empty

		"g" // search globally in string
	);

	// get the property name
	lines[0].replace(valueReg, function (m0,m1,m2,m3) {

		if( m1 !== undefined ) { colnames.push(m1); }

		else if( m2 !== undefined ) { colnames.push(m2); }

		else if( m3 !== undefined ) { colnames.push(m3); }

		else { colnames.push(''); } // empty element

	})

	// for each line push new object
	for (var i = 1; i <= (lines.length-1); i++) {

		var k = 0;

		var obj = {};

		lines[i].replace(valueReg, function (m0,m1,m2,m3) {

			if( m1 !== undefined ) { obj[colnames[k]] = m1; }

			else if( m2 !== undefined ) { obj[colnames[k]] = m2; }

			else if( m3 !== undefined ) { obj[colnames[k]] = m3; }

			else { obj[colnames[k]] = ''; } // empty element

			k++;

		})

		result.push(obj);
	}

	return result;

}