debussy

Simple, fast, and efficient file reader - line by line

Installation

npm install debussy --save

Overview

You want to read files line by line. And you cannot be bothered with memory limitations because of the size of the file.

This module neatly does the trick for you, even if you need to parse a 20 GB log file.

Usage

const Debussy = require('debussy');
const FileReader = new Debussy('/path/to/file');

// or pass in options to override defaults.
// refer to fs.createReadStream() documentation.
const FileReader = new Debussy(filename, {encoding: 'utf-8'});

FileReader.on('line', line => {
  // process line...

  // found what you need; stop the stream.
  FileReader.stop();
});

FileReader.on('end', () => {
  // do whatever you want after last line has been read...
});

As of node v6.2.0, import statement still not implemented. And not gonna complicate things transpiling to ES5.

Technical Notes

We're using node's built-in streaming, readline, and event emit tech. The module is very small. The inspiration for creating this npm package was so I wouldn't have to keep looking up and repeating the same stream and readline node syntax every time I needed to parse a file.

Why Name the Module Debussy?

After researching similar npm modules, I discovered I really didn't have to write this at all and I could be using someone else's npm package instead. But that's no fun. Also, I get to make my interface the way I think it should be done. And giving the module a name which represented its functionality would have lost my version in a sea of names like file-reader, line-read, file-line-read, stream-line-reader, line-reader-stream, read-by-line, reader-line-stuff, etc.

I therefore paid homage to one of the greatest composers.

Enjoy!

Gerry Gold May 2016