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Sep 7, 2025
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Added CSV to README.md #490

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14 changes: 13 additions & 1 deletion README.md
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Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -68,6 +68,7 @@ The following table lists the serialization formats currently supported by refle
| BSON | [libbson](https://github.com/mongodb/mongo-c-driver) | >= 1.25.1 | Apache 2.0 | JSON-like binary format |
| Cap'n Proto | [capnproto](https://capnproto.org) | >= 1.0.2 | MIT | Schemaful binary format |
| CBOR | [jsoncons](https://github.com/danielaparker/jsoncons)| >= 0.176.0 | BSL 1.0 | JSON-like binary format |
| CSV | [Apache Arrow](https://arrow.apache.org/) | >= 21.0.0 | Apache 2.0 | Tabular textual format |
| flexbuffers | [flatbuffers](https://github.com/google/flatbuffers) | >= 23.5.26 | Apache 2.0 | Schema-less version of flatbuffers, binary format |
| msgpack | [msgpack-c](https://github.com/msgpack/msgpack-c) | >= 6.0.0 | BSL 1.0 | JSON-like binary format |
| parquet | [Apache Arrow](https://arrow.apache.org/) | >= 21.0.0 | Apache 2.0 | Tabular binary format |
Expand Down Expand Up @@ -245,7 +246,7 @@ std::cout << "Hello, my name is " << homer2.first_name() << " "

### Tabular data

reflect-cpp also supports tabular data formats, like Parquet:
reflect-cpp also supports tabular data formats, like CSV or Parquet:

```cpp
#include <rfl/parquet.hpp>
Expand All @@ -268,9 +269,20 @@ const auto people =
.age = 45,
.email = "homer@simpson.com"}});

const auto csv_string = rfl::csv::write(people);
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high

This CSV serialization example has some inconsistencies with the surrounding documentation that could be confusing for users:

  1. The code block above is missing the required #include <rfl/csv.hpp>.
  2. The Person struct being serialized here is implicitly the one from the "More Comprehensive Example". That struct is not compatible with the CSV output shown below because it uses rfl::Rename to produce camelCase names (e.g., firstName) and contains a std::vector<Person> children field, which is not supported in tabular formats.

To improve clarity, it would be best to define a new, flat Person struct for this tabular data section that is compatible with CSV and matches the generated output.

const auto bytestring = rfl::parquet::write(people);
```

This will resulting CSV will look like this:
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medium

There is a small typo in this sentence.

Suggested change
This will resulting CSV will look like this:
The resulting CSV will look like this:


```
"first_name";"last_name";"town";"birthday";"age";"email"
"Bart";"Simpson";"Springfield";1987-04-19;10;"bart@simpson.com"
"Lisa";"Simpson";"Springfield";1987-04-19;8;"lisa@simpson.com"
"Maggie";"Simpson";"Springfield";1987-04-19;0;"maggie@simpson.com"
"Homer";"Simpson";"Springfield";1987-04-19;45;"homer@simpson.com"
```
Comment on lines +279 to +284
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medium

The CSV output shown here uses semicolons (;) as delimiters. However, the code rfl::csv::write(people) uses default settings, which will produce standard comma-separated values. This mismatch could be confusing. To make the example consistent, please change the delimiter in the output to a comma.

Suggested change
"first_name";"last_name";"town";"birthday";"age";"email"
"Bart";"Simpson";"Springfield";1987-04-19;10;"bart@simpson.com"
"Lisa";"Simpson";"Springfield";1987-04-19;8;"lisa@simpson.com"
"Maggie";"Simpson";"Springfield";1987-04-19;0;"maggie@simpson.com"
"Homer";"Simpson";"Springfield";1987-04-19;45;"homer@simpson.com"
```
"first_name","last_name","town","birthday","age","email"
"Bart","Simpson","Springfield",1987-04-19,10,"bart@simpson.com"
"Lisa","Simpson","Springfield",1987-04-19,8,"lisa@simpson.com"
"Maggie","Simpson","Springfield",1987-04-19,0,"maggie@simpson.com"
"Homer","Simpson","Springfield",1987-04-19,45,"homer@simpson.com"


### Error messages

reflect-cpp returns clear and comprehensive error messages:
Expand Down
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