CSV to text -

[Bob Goodwin]

How can I convert a .csv file to text in a Fedora system.

Bob

[Clifford Snow]

Bob,
Isn't a csv already text? How do you want to change the csv file? Can you
give an example?

Best,
Clifford

On Sun, Aug 4, 2019 at 5:06 PM Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> How can I convert a .csv file to text in a Fedora system.
>
> Bob
>
> --
> Bob Goodwin - Zuni, Virginia, USA
> http://www.qrz.com/db/W2BOD
> box83  FEDORA-30/64bit LINUX XFCE Fastmail POP3
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> List Guidelines: https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives:
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[Cameron Simpson]

On 04Aug2019 20:05, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> How can I convert a .csv file to text in a Fedora system.

Depends what you mean. A CSV file _is_ text in a sense, in that it is 
text lines containing data in a particular format.

Can you qualify what you mean by "convert to text"? Change the data 
format? Pull out strings from some columns? Just change the file 
extension from .csv to .txt so that some GUI file mangler treats it 
differently?

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson

[William Oliver]

I have done it in the past by loading the .csv into a spreadsheet
program, saving a selection as a PDF file, and then converting the PDF
file into text using something like okular or pdftotext.  If you do it
this way there are a couple of things to be careful of:

1) Just save a selection to be converted to PDF.  Some spreadsheet
programs try to save a lot of white space, and take forever to finish. 
I've had this problem with Libreoffice.  There may be a problem if
there are a zillion columns, because you will get it spread over a lot
of pages.  There might be a way around that with the PDF settings, but
I don't know what it is.

2) You may have to play with programs that will move PDF to text to get
the right formatting.  I've had reasonable luck with using okular;
pdftotext tended to have problems with wide pages.

billo

On Sun, 2019-08-04 at 20:05 -0400, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> How can I convert a .csv file to text in a Fedora system.
>
> Bob
>
> -- 
> Bob Goodwin - Zuni, Virginia, USA
> http://www.qrz.com/db/W2BOD
> box83  FEDORA-30/64bit LINUX XFCE Fastmail POP3
> _______________________________________________
> users mailing list -- [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe send an email to [e-mail]
> Fedora Code of Conduct: 
> https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/project/code-of-conduct/
> List Guidelines: 
> https://fedoraproject.org/wiki/Mailing_list_guidelines
> List Archives: 
> https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/[e-mail]

[Bob Goodwin]

On 8/4/19 8:16 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> On 04Aug2019 20:05, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> > How can I convert a .csv file to text in a Fedora system.
>
> Depends what you mean. A CSV file _is_ text in a sense, in that it is 
> text lines containing data in a particular format.
>
> Can you qualify what you mean by "convert to text"? Change the data 
> format? Pull out strings from some columns? Just change the file 
> extension from .csv to .txt so that some GUI file mangler treats it 
> differently?
>
> Cheers,
> Cameron Simpson 
> ________________________________

Sorry, I've been reading too many google searches, they are VCF files I 
hoped to be able to display in a more readable form

Here is one f them:  /home/bobg/Desktop/Dr. MAISENBACHER.vcf

Fedora wants to display them with Evolution but that comes up in black 
text on white in a separate window, almost unreadable for me. I was 
hoping to find something that would display it in a terminal which I 
always view as white on a black background. This is not a matter of 
aesthetics, but what seems to work with my deteriorating sight.

[ToddAndMargo]

On 8/4/19 6:21 PM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> On 8/4/19 8:16 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> > On 04Aug2019 20:05, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> > > How can I convert a .csv file to text in a Fedora system.
> >
> > Depends what you mean. A CSV file _is_ text in a sense, in that it is 
> > text lines containing data in a particular format.
> >
> > Can you qualify what you mean by "convert to text"? Change the data 
> > format? Pull out strings from some columns? Just change the file 
> > extension from .csv to .txt so that some GUI file mangler treats it 
> > differently?
> >
> > Cheers,
> > Cameron Simpson 
> > ________________________________
>
> Sorry, I've been reading too many google searches, they are VCF files I 
> hoped to be able to display in a more readable form
>
> Here is one f them:  /home/bobg/Desktop/Dr. MAISENBACHER.vcf
>
> Fedora wants to display them with Evolution but that comes up in black 
> text on white in a separate window, almost unreadable for me. I was 
> hoping to find something that would display it in a terminal which I 
> always view as white on a black background. This is not a matter of 
> aesthetics, but what seems to work with my deteriorating sight.

Hi Bob,

Thunderbird can read these.They are address book entries:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=vcf+thunderbird&t=ffab&ia=web

-T

[Ed Greshko]

On 8/5/19 9:21 AM, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> Sorry, I've been reading too many google searches, they are VCF files I hoped to be able
> to display in a more readable form
>
> Here is one f them:  /home/bobg/Desktop/Dr. MAISENBACHER.vcf
>
> Fedora wants to display them with Evolution but that comes up in black text on white in
> a separate window, almost unreadable for me. I was hoping to find something that would
> display it in a terminal which I always view as white on a black background. This is not
> a matter of aesthetics, but what seems to work with my deteriorating sight.

vCards (vcf files) are normally in Text with a possibility of a data block for a photo.

Just try opening it with your favorite text editor

[Tim]

On Sun, 2019-08-04 at 21:21 -0400, Bob Goodwin wrote:
> VCF files I hoped to be able to display in a more readable form
>
> Here is one f them:  /home/bobg/Desktop/Dr. MAISENBACHER.vcf
>
> Fedora wants to display them with Evolution but that comes up in
> black text on white in a separate window, almost unreadable for me. I
> was hoping to find something that would display it in a terminal
> which I always view as white on a black background.

They're already plain text, so you can view them in any text viewer
that you like, or even use "less" in the command line.

If you're accessing them through a file manager, you should have more
than one option when you right-click on them.  And you should be able
to change your preferred default.  They don't have to be associated
with your email program as default.

If you want, you could find a contact manager.  That way you'd get the
raw code massaged into something more human readable, and (hopefully)
using your preferred desktop colour scheme.

[Bob Goodwin]

On 8/4/19 10:36 PM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> vCards (vcf files) are normally in Text with a possibility of a data block for a photo.
>
> Just try opening it with your favorite text editor

.
Ok, I think she sent them to me as "text messages" at first? Not sure 
what happened but Thunderbird showed them as .txt attachments which when 
viewed with notepad was missing essential information, e.g. telephone 
numbers. Resent and now Thunderbird displays the essential stuff:

Dr. MAISENBACHER.vcf

BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iPhone OS 12.3.1//EN
N:MAISENBACHER;Dr.;;;
FN: Dr.  MAISENBACHER
ORG:Veterinary Heart Care— Cardiologist Dog MURPHY;
TEL;type=WORK;type=VOICE;type=pref:[phone]
END:VCARD

Not pretty but it is sufficient for the "what to do while she is away emergency list." And Mousepad also displays the attachment as in Thunderbird. It appears that the problem was the way the files were sent, what I received was corrupted or not complete ...

Thanks to all, Bob

[Cameron Simpson]

On 05Aug2019 07:07, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> On 8/4/19 10:36 PM, Ed Greshko wrote:
> > vCards (vcf files) are normally in Text with a possibility of a data block for a photo.
> >
> > Just try opening it with your favorite text editor
>
> .
> Ok, I think she sent them to me as "text messages" at first? Not sure 
> what happened but Thunderbird showed them as .txt attachments which 
> when viewed with notepad was missing essential information, e.g. 
> telephone numbers. Resent and now Thunderbird displays the essential 
> stuff:
>
> Dr. MAISENBACHER.vcf
>
> BEGIN:VCARD
> VERSION:3.0
> PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iPhone OS 12.3.1//EN

[...]
> Not pretty but it is sufficient for the "what to do while she is away 
> emergency list." And Mousepad also displays the attachment as in 
> Thunderbird. It appears that the problem was the way the files were 
> sent, what I received was corrupted or not complete ...

I would guess that this was attached with a Content-Type header of 
"text/plain", which says that the attachment is plain text.  It _should_ 
have been attached as text/vcard, which says that it is a contact. I'm 
surprised that this was incorrect if it came from an iPhone as the 
PRODID header above hints.

Hmm. I just shared myself a contact from my iphone by email and the .vcf 
attachment has Content-Type "text/directory". Thunderbird shows it 
inline as text but does know that it is a vcard file.

If you have the original email, what Content-Type does it show for the 
attachment headers?

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson

[Bob Goodwin]

On 8/5/19 5:18 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> I would guess that this was attached with a Content-Type header of 
> "text/plain", which says that the attachment is plain text.  It 
> _should_ have been attached as text/vcard, which says that it is a 
> contact. I'm surprised that this was incorrect if it came from an 
> iPhone as the PRODID header above hints.
>
> Hmm. I just shared myself a contact from my iphone by email and the 
> .vcf attachment has Content-Type "text/directory". Thunderbird shows 
> it inline as text but does know that it is a vcard file.
>
> If you have the original email, what Content-Type does it show for the 
> attachment headers?
>
> Cheers,
> Cameron Simpson

.

.
It looks like you are correct. From the last few lines of the source:

--__CONTENT_64564_PART_BOUNDARY__33243242__
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-ID: <1>
Content-Disposition: attachment;
  filename="text_1.txt"
Content-Location: text_1.txt

MURPHYs Cardiologist
--__CONTENT_64564_PART_BOUNDARY__33243242__--

Bob

[Cameron Simpson]

On 05Aug2019 18:32, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> On 8/5/19 5:18 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> > I would guess that this was attached with a Content-Type header of 
> > "text/plain", which says that the attachment is plain text.  It 
> > _should_ have been attached as text/vcard, which says that it is a 
> > contact. I'm surprised that this was incorrect if it came from an 
> > iPhone as the PRODID header above hints.
> >
> > Hmm. I just shared myself a contact from my iphone by email and the 
> > .vcf attachment has Content-Type "text/directory". Thunderbird shows 
> > it inline as text but does know that it is a vcard file.
> >
> > If you have the original email, what Content-Type does it show for 
> > the attachment headers?
>
> .
> It looks like you are correct. From the last few lines of the source:
>
> --__CONTENT_64564_PART_BOUNDARY__33243242__
> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
> Content-ID: <1>
> Content-Disposition: attachment;
> filename="text_1.txt"
> Content-Location: text_1.txt
>
> MURPHYs Cardiologist
> --__CONTENT_64564_PART_BOUNDARY__33243242__--

I think that's not the VCARD. I think that's just part of the message 
text. Look higher up. 
- Cameron Simpson

[Bob Goodwin]

On 8/5/19 6:50 PM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> I think that's not the VCARD. I think that's just part of the message 
> text. Look higher up. - Cameron Simpson
> __________

.
This was from a latest model iPhone ...

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Date: Sun, 4 Aug 2019 12:57:58 +0000
MIME-Version:1.0
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--__CONTENT_64564_PART_BOUNDARY__33243242__
Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=utf-8;
  name="MAISENBAC.vcf"
Content-ID: <0>
Content-Disposition: attachment;
  filename="MAISENBAC.vcf"
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Content-Disposition: attachment;
  filename="text_1.txt"
Content-Location: text_1.txt

MURPHYs Cardiologist
--__CONTENT_64564_PART_BOUNDARY__33243242__--

[Cameron Simpson]

On 05Aug2019 19:29, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> This was from a latest model iPhone ...

The VCARD is this bit:

--__CONTENT_64564_PART_BOUNDARY__33243242__
    Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=utf-8;
      name="MAISENBAC.vcf"
    Content-ID: <0>
    Content-Disposition: attachment;
      filename="MAISENBAC.vcf"
    Content-Location: MAISENBAC.vcf
    Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64

QkVHSU46VkNBUkQNClZFUlNJT046My4wDQpQUk9ESUQ6LS8vQXBwbGUgSW5jLi8vaVBob25l
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so it is using "text/x-vcard".

What does Thunderbird (it was Thunderbird, yes?) do with that message?

Also, does saving the attachment, and then opening it from whatever file 
browser you use do?

These things may be different:

Thunderbird (or any mail programme) will use the Content-Type to decide 
how to handle the attachment; the filename is irrelevant in this 
circumstance. If it doesn't recognise "text/x-vard" specially it might 
treat it as text.

By contrast, the file browser will look at the file extension.  Ideally 
it backtracks from that via the /etc/mime.types file to infer a data 
type and from that to decide what application to invoke.

AFAIR there is also a freedesktop standard for file xattrs to express 
the mime type of the file. _If_ Thunderbird utilises this, it would 
write the mime type to an extended attribute when you save the 
attachment, and _if_ your file browser honours that xattr it should 
prefer that over guessing from the file extension.

Finally, _nothing_ should be sniffing the file _data_ to decide what to 
do; everything should be honouring how the file is labelled: via its 
file extension or the xattr if provided with the file.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson

[Ed Greshko]

On 8/6/19 8:48 AM, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> On 05Aug2019 19:29, Bob Goodwin  wrote:
> > This was from a latest model iPhone ...
>
> The VCARD is this bit:
>
> --__CONTENT_64564_PART_BOUNDARY__33243242__
>    Content-Type: text/x-vcard; charset=utf-8;
>      name="MAISENBAC.vcf"
>    Content-ID: <0>
>    Content-Disposition: attachment;
>      filename="MAISENBAC.vcf"
>    Content-Location: MAISENBAC.vcf
>    Content-Transfer-Encoding: base64
>
> QkVHSU46VkNBUkQNClZFUlNJT046My4wDQpQUk9ESUQ6LS8vQXBwbGUgSW5jLi8vaVBob25l
>    IE9TIDEyLjMuMS8vRU4NCk46TUFJU0VOQkFDSEVSO0RyLiA7OzsNCkZOOiBEci4gICBNQUlT
>    RU5CQUNIRVIgDQpPUkc6VmV0ZXJpbmFyeSBIZWFydCBDYXJl4oCUIENhcmRpb2xvZ2lzdCBE
>    b2c7DQpURUw7dHlwZT1XT1JLO3R5cGU9Vk9JQ0U7dHlwZT1wcmVmOig3NTcpIDYwNS0xNjEw
>    DQpFTkQ6VkNBUkQNCg==
>
> so it is using "text/x-vcard".
>
> What does Thunderbird (it was Thunderbird, yes?) do with that message?

FWIW, I took the entire message and saved it to the file bob.eml and then did
"Open-->Saved Message".  It displays some information inline but not all.

The only choice T-Bird gives you is to import the card into the address book.  The
imported data doesn't include the phone number.  Vcard standard issue?

One could take the base64 block and save it to a file and then use the base64 command as so,

[egreshko@meimei ~]$ base64 -d bob.vcf
BEGIN:VCARD
VERSION:3.0
PRODID:-//Apple Inc.//iPhone OS 12.3.1//EN
N:MAISENBACHER;Dr. ;;;
FN: Dr.   MAISENBACHER
ORG:Veterinary Heart Care— Cardiologist Dog;
TEL;type=WORK;type=VOICE;type=pref:[phone]
END:VCARD

[Tim]

On Tue, 2019-08-06 at 07:18 +1000, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> I would guess that this was attached with a Content-Type header of 
> "text/plain", which says that the attachment is plain text.  It
> _should_ have been attached as text/vcard, which says that it is a
> contact. I'm surprised that this was incorrect if it came from an
> iPhone as the PRODID header above hints.

For what it's worth, it should come through unscathed, whichever way
it's sent.  But sent with the right MIME description, client software
knows what it's supposed to do with it.

So many things are sent incorrectly, though, it's not surprising that
programmers will decide to make their program investigate some files,
and work outside of the MIME system.  It's a bad move, but
understandable.

[Tim]

On Tue, 2019-08-06 at 10:04 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
> FWIW, I took the entire message and saved it to the file bob.eml and
> then did "Open-->Saved Message".  It displays some information inline
> but not all.
>
> The only choice T-Bird gives you is to import the card into the
> address book.  The imported data doesn't include the phone number. 
> Vcard standard issue?

If the card had the number (written in the expected manner), it should
import it.  Email program contacts databases hold more than just name
and address data.  The whole point of things like vcard is to
facilitate automatic import/export of such data.

There's samples of vcard data in here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard

[Ed Greshko]

On 8/6/19 6:37 PM, Tim via users wrote:
> On Tue, 2019-08-06 at 10:04 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
> > FWIW, I took the entire message and saved it to the file bob.eml and
> > then did "Open-->Saved Message".  It displays some information inline
> > but not all.
> >
> > The only choice T-Bird gives you is to import the card into the
> > address book.  The imported data doesn't include the phone number. 
> > Vcard standard issue?
>
> If the card had the number (written in the expected manner), it should
> import it.  Email program contacts databases hold more than just name
> and address data.  The whole point of things like vcard is to
> facilitate automatic import/export of such data.

Well, FWIW, a contact sent from an Android phone via gmail gets imported just fine
including the phone number.

The problem seems to be T-Bird as it fails to recognize VCARD version 3.0 formatting.

Changing

TEL;type=WORK;type=VOICE;type=pref:[phone]

to

TEL;WORK;VOICE;pref:[phone]

and it works fine.
> There's samples of vcard data in here:
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VCard

I really wasn't going to read RFC's tonight....  But what the heck.

[Tim]

On Tue, 2019-08-06 at 20:26 +0800, Ed Greshko wrote:
> I really wasn't going to read RFC's tonight....  But what the heck.

Well, that's one way of getting to sleep.

I used to read NASA articles to do that (my electronics magazine used
to have one each month).  They're full of unfamiliar jargon, it's like
hearing gearheads talk about overhead camshafts and other arcane bits
of engines.  Part way through my eyes would glaze over.

Odd that Thunderbird had such a peculiarity, could just be a bug.  I
wonder how many people really use vcards?  My quick look at the
supplied data versus an example looked like it shouldn't be a problem.

[Cameron Simpson]

On 06Aug2019 20:26, Ed Greshko  wrote:
> Well, FWIW, a contact sent from an Android phone via gmail gets 
> imported just fine
> including the phone number.
>
> The problem seems to be T-Bird as it fails to recognize VCARD version 3.0 formatting.
>
> Changing
> TEL;type=WORK;type=VOICE;type=pref:[phone]
> to
> TEL;WORK;VOICE;pref:[phone]

Sounds worth a bug report. Include the vcard (with the personal details 
obfuscated - replace the name, replace the digits of the phone number 
but keep the shape). And the edit you made to made TB accept the card.

If you save the vcf file and try to import it to other contact 
management tools, how do they behave?

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson

[Cameron Simpson]

On 06Aug2019 22:37, Tim  wrote:
> Odd that Thunderbird had such a peculiarity, could just be a bug.

Probably just code not up to date with the standard. Or just lazy code; 
in a former life I actually had to argue with another dev about 
including correct support for the mime.types file in something (there's 
a rarely used bracket syntax I honoured).
> I
> wonder how many people really use vcards?  My quick look at the
> supplied data versus an example looked like it shouldn't be a problem.

Not enough apparently if support is this poor. But whenever you share a 
contact eg as a text message you're relying on a VCARD.

And I am _constantly_ annoyed by _every_ web site with a "contact us" 
page which doesn't have a tiny download-address-as-vcard link. Which 
seems to be every web site. Such a basic convenience.

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson

[Tim]

On Fri, 2019-08-09 at 08:26 +1000, Cameron Simpson wrote:
> I am _constantly_ annoyed by _every_ web site with a "contact
> us" page which doesn't have a tiny download-address-as-vcard link.
> Which seems to be every web site. Such a basic convenience.

I'd never really thought of that.  My website was created before
smartphones, here.  But I had to mangle contact details for machine
reading, to stop a gazillion nuisance calls, likewise with email
addresses and spam.

I know that links like href="tel:[phone]" can be used by some phones
as a clickable number, but I don't think it's actually a defined
standard.