nextflow-io / nextflow-io/nextflow

Expand `.splitCsv()` to allow comments in CSV and TSV files

Open
#6,705 6 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

good first issue
Dominant language
Groovy
Stars
3.5k
Forks
811
Avg merge
2d 11h
Merged PRs (30d)
61

Description

New feature

Someone opened a feature request on nf-schema to ask to allow comments (#) in CSV and TSV files. I however think this would be an awesome upstream addition to the .splitCsv() method so everyone can benefit from that feature. Comments syntax as explained here makes the most sense I think: https://www.w3schools.io/file/csv-comments/

Use case

Easier debugging in CSV and TSV files by allowing directly commenting out lines in those files. This could also help to add some comments and explanation to those files without breaking them.

Suggested implementation

I think this should not be default behaviour of the function but adding an option like comments:true would be an ideal solution IMO

Thanks!

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by locating the .splitCsv() entry point and the code that parses CSV and TSV input. Check how options are passed and how existing tests cover this method; done means an opt-in comments:true option skips comment lines while default behavior remains unchanged.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
groovy
Domain
data-engineering
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
48/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.