Monkeybread Software - MBS FileMaker Plugin: FM.InsertRecordCSV

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New in version: 12.2 12.3 12.4 12.5 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 Statistic FMM Blog

FM.InsertRecordCSV

Inserts records based on CSV text.

Component	Version	macOS	Windows	Linux	Server	iOS SDK
FM FMSQL	7.4	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes	✅ Yes

MBS( "FM.InsertRecordCSV"; InsertFileName; InsertTableName; FieldNames; Text { ; Delimiter; FieldName...; FieldValue... } ) More

Parameters

Parameter Description Example Flags

InsertFileName The file name of where the insert table is inside.
Can be empty to look for the table in all files. Get(FileName)

InsertTableName The name of the table to insert record into.
Can be ID of table, so we lookup name by ID.
Can be result of GetFieldName() function as we remove field name automatically. "Assets"

FieldNames A list of field names for the insert.
Empty entries in the list are ignored.

If you like to skip a field, you may include a field name multiple time, so the first assignment will then be overwritten by the following assignment. "First¶Last¶Zip¶Work City"

Text The text to import in TSV/CSV format.
This means tab, comma or semicolon character between fields and newline character for new records.
Use Files.ReadTextFile if needed to read this from a file on disk. "Bob;Miller;12345;New York"

Delimiter Available in MBS FileMaker Plugin 8.5 or newer.
The delimiter to use.
If empty, we auto detect it. ";" Optional

FieldName... A field name to set. "Model" Optional

FieldValue... A field value to use for setting the field in the parameter before.
Data type of parameter must match the data type of the field. "Test" Optional

Parameter	Description	Example	Flags
InsertFileName	The file name of where the insert table is inside. Can be empty to look for the table in all files.	Get(FileName)
InsertTableName	The name of the table to insert record into. Can be ID of table, so we lookup name by ID. Can be result of GetFieldName() function as we remove field name automatically.	"Assets"
FieldNames	A list of field names for the insert. Empty entries in the list are ignored. If you like to skip a field, you may include a field name multiple time, so the first assignment will then be overwritten by the following assignment.	"First¶Last¶Zip¶Work City"
Text	The text to import in TSV/CSV format. This means tab, comma or semicolon character between fields and newline character for new records. Use Files.ReadTextFile if needed to read this from a file on disk.	"Bob;Miller;12345;New York"
Delimiter	Available in MBS FileMaker Plugin 8.5 or newer. The delimiter to use. If empty, we auto detect it.	";"	Optional
FieldName...	A field name to set.	"Model"	Optional
FieldValue...	A field value to use for setting the field in the parameter before. Data type of parameter must match the data type of the field.	"Test"	Optional

Result

Returns OK or error.

Description

Inserts records based on CSV text.
This function allows for easy importing of text to create a lot of records.
Filename parameters can be empty.
Use FM.ExecuteSQL.LastErrorMessage and FM.ExecuteSQL.LastError to see error message.

Reports an error if field name list doesn't match column count of the query result. Since version 8.2 we can fill text, number, time, timestamp and date fields and let FileMaker convert the values with your current locale.

Returns number of records added.

CSV is automatically parsed per line with List.CSVSplit function internally.

You can pass one pair of field name and value for each extra field you like to set in the new records. e.g. a reference ID.

You can specify fields and table via IDs and the plugin will lookup them for you at runtime. Table IDs and table names must be unique across all open files for this to work correctly.

With plugin version 8.4 or newer, you can use GetFieldName() function to query field names and the plugin removes the table prefix with :: in the field name before passing it to SQL engine.

Version 8.5 adds Delimiter parameter, which may break scripts, but we need to have that parameter for people with older version.

Version 11.1 does handle backslashes inside quotes for \r and \n for returns and \t for tabs. You can use \\ for backslash.

This function uses our field type cache from the Audit functions to determinate the type of a field. If you change a field type, you may restart FileMaker or use Audit.ClearCaches to clear it.

If input is stored in a container, you can use Text.ReadTextFromContainer function to read text first and pass it to this function.

This function takes variable number of parameters. Pass as much parameters as needed separated by the semicolon in FileMaker.
Please repeat FieldName and FieldValue parameters as often as you need.

Examples

Import some contacts with passing import ID/timestamp:

MBS( "FM.InsertRecordCSV"; "Contacts.fmp12"; "Contacts"; "FirstName¶LastName¶City"; $tsv; ""; "ImportID"; $importID; "ImportDate"; Get(CurrentHostTimeStamp))

Import CSV:

MBS( "FM.InsertRecordCSV"; "Kontakte.fmp12"; "Kontakte"; "Vorname¶Nachname¶Firma¶Position"; "Vorname;Nachname;Firma;Position")

Import with escaped returns:

MBS( "FM.InsertRecordCSV"; "Contacts.fmp12"; "Contacts"; "First¶Last¶Work City"; """Christian\rPeter"";Schmitz;""Nickenich\nGermany""")

Release notes

Version 11.2
- Changed FM.InsertRecordCSV and FM.InsertRecordTSV to recognize backslash escapes to have returns and tabs escaped in text.
Version 9.3
- Rewrote FM.InsertRecordCSV to support multi line values.
Version 9.2
- Fixed problem with delimiter detection in FM.InsertRecordCSV.
Version 8.5
- Added delimiter parameter for List.CSVSplit, QuickList.CSVSplit and FM.InsertRecordCSV.
Version 8.2
- Improved FM.InsertRecordCSV and FM.InsertRecordTSV to handle date/time/timestamp fields.
Version 8.0
- Changed FM.InsertRecordCSV and FM.InsertRecordTSV to detect whether columns are numbers instead of text and handle it correctly.
Version 7.4
- Added CSV functions: FM.InsertRecordCSV, List.CSVSplit and QuickList.CSVSplit.