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FastCSV FastCSV

Other libraries

While FastCSV offers a great mix of features, performance, and usability, it might not be the right choice for every use case. Here are some other popular open-source Java libraries you might want to give a try:

Apache Commons CSV

Under the Apache umbrella, Commons CSV is a well-known library for reading and writing CSV files.

Things to consider:

  • Comes with 3rd party dependencies which can lead to dependency conflicts
  • With 923 KiB, including dependencies, it’s not a lightweight library
  • It struggles with some non-standard CSV files
  • It has a quite low performance
  • Many open issues
  • No features known that FastCSV doesn’t offer

Jackson CSV

Mostly famous for JSON processing, the Jackson library also offers a module for reading and writing CSV files.

Things to consider:

  • Comes with 3rd party dependencies which can lead to dependency conflicts
  • With 2.4 megabytes, including dependencies, it’s not a lightweight library
  • It struggles with some non-standard CSV files
  • While having an active community, there are many open and stale issues

Opencsv

Right after Apache Commons CSV, Opencsv is one of the most popular libraries for reading and writing CSV files in Java.

Things to consider:

  • Comes with 3rd party dependencies which can lead to dependency conflicts
  • With 2.7 megabytes, including dependencies, it’s not a lightweight library
  • Not fully standards-compliant
  • It has a quite low performance
  • Unable to handle comments or to skip empty lines (not a standard CSV feature but often required)

SimpleFlatMapper

Another quite high-performance library is SimpleFlatMapper that focuses on Bean mapping.

Things to consider:

  • Comes with 3rd party dependencies which can lead to dependency conflicts
  • With 1.5 megabytes, including dependencies, it’s not a lightweight library
  • Use bytecode manipulation which could lead to compatibility issues
  • It struggles with some non-standard CSV files
  • While having an active community, there are many open and stale issues

Deprecated libraries

Other, once popular libraries are excluded from this list because they don’t seem to be actively maintained anymore: