MTSV for Python

A parser and a generator for Multi-Sheet Tab-Separated Values (MTSV), with integrations for CSV, JSON, spreadsheets (ODS and XLSX) and data tools (Apache Arrow). The version is the version field of pyproject.toml.

• Specification
• Repository

Install

The mtsv command, in an environment of its own:

pipx install mtsv

The library, in a virtual environment:

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install mtsv

For the Arrow integration, which also installs pyarrow:

.venv/bin/pip install "mtsv[arrow]"

To install from a clone instead, run the same commands from the root of the repository with ./python in place of mtsv.

Convert files

mtsv book.xlsx

That writes book.mtsv beside it. Name the output to choose the format, or the name:

mtsv book.xlsx book.mtsv
mtsv book.mtsv book.ods

The file extensions name the formats, so any two of .mtsv, .csv, .json, .ods and .xlsx convert to one another. Options come before the operands, and - is standard input or standard output:

mtsv -e strict book.xlsx book.mtsv
mtsv book.xlsx -

The output file can also be named with -o, or --output:

mtsv -o book.mtsv book.xlsx

A conversion that cannot carry everything still converts, and says on standard error what it left behind. -e strict, or --errors strict, refuses it instead. A stream carries MTSV, because it has no file extension to name another format, and the output must be named where there is no name to derive: a stream, or MTSV already.

The ODS and XLSX integrations also have a module form of the same conversion, limited to their own format, such as python -m mtsv.integrations.ods. They carry it because they shipped before the command existed.

Read and write MTSV

Sheets are a list of dictionaries with "sheet name", "header", and "records", the same shape as the conformance results.

import mtsv

with open("book.mtsv", "rb") as file:
    sheets = mtsv.load(file)

with open("book.mtsv", "wb") as file:
    mtsv.dump(sheets, file)

loads and dumps work on strings.

JSON

The same sheets, written as JSON (RFC 8259). This is the form the conformance results use, so a file written here is the file that sits beside every .mtsv file in the corpus.

from mtsv.integrations import json

with open("book.json", "wb") as file:
    json.dump(sheets, file)

with open("book.json", "rb") as file:
    sheets = json.load(file)

CSV

from mtsv.integrations import csv

with open("book.csv", "wb") as file:
    csv.dump(sheets, file)

with open("book.csv", "rb") as file:
    sheets = csv.load(file)

CSV holds one table and has nowhere to record which sheet it came from, so it reads and writes a sheet whose sheet name is empty — the same plane a TSV file holds. A file of more than one sheet, whose sheet name is not empty, or whose sheet has no lines, raises ValueError.

Spreadsheets (ODS)

from mtsv.integrations import ods

with open("book.ods", "wb") as file:
    ods.dump(sheets, file)

with open("book.ods", "rb") as file:
    sheets = ods.load(file)

From the command line:

python -m mtsv.integrations.ods book.mtsv book.ods
python -m mtsv.integrations.ods book.ods book.mtsv

Spreadsheets (XLSX)

from mtsv.integrations import xlsx

with open("book.xlsx", "wb") as file:
    xlsx.dump(sheets, file)

with open("book.xlsx", "rb") as file:
    sheets = xlsx.load(file)

From the command line:

python -m mtsv.integrations.xlsx book.mtsv book.xlsx
python -m mtsv.integrations.xlsx book.xlsx book.mtsv

Data tools (Apache Arrow)

from mtsv.integrations import arrow

tables = arrow.to_arrow(sheets)
sheets = arrow.from_arrow(tables)

tables is a list of (sheet name, pyarrow.Table) pairs.

What is left behind

MTSV holds sheets, names, rows, and text. Everything else is left at the door, and each door reports what it dropped.

Going out, ODS and XLSX both raise ValueError for a character that XML 1.0 does not allow. XLSX also raises for a file with no sheets, and for a sheet wider than 16,384 columns or longer than 1,048,576 rows, because a workbook holds none of those. CSV raises for a file of more than one sheet, whose sheet name is not empty, or whose sheet has no lines, because CSV holds one table of at least one record and no sheet name. JSON holds everything MTSV holds, so it refuses nothing.

Coming back in, whatever a spreadsheet holds that MTSV does not — formatting, formulas, types, styles, and the parts that carry them — is left behind. load raises ValueError rather than drop it, unless it is passed errors="ignore". The command drops it and names it on standard error instead, because the person running it is reading the report; --errors strict makes the command refuse it too.

Two differences are worth knowing. Empty rows and columns at the edge of an ODS sheet do not come back, so an ODS sheet of only empty fields comes back as an empty sheet; XLSX keeps them, because a workbook may leave a cell out entirely. And a workbook holds a date as a serial number, with the date format kept apart from it, so a cell showing Jan-23 comes back from XLSX as 44927 where ODS gives 2023-01-01.

Text that MTSV cannot hold, such as a tab or line break inside a value, always raises ValueError. So does an Arrow column whose values cannot be text at all, such as binary, a list, or a struct.

Layout

Path	Contents
src/mtsv/	the interface, the parser, and the generator
src/mtsv/integrations/	one module per target standard
tests/	the test suite, run against the install

Test

From the root of the repository:

python3 -m venv .venv
.venv/bin/pip install "./python[arrow]"
.venv/bin/python -m unittest discover -s python/tests

License

MIT