• Adobe After Effects Expressions

  Table from a CSV

  Posted by Matthew Belinkie on March 23, 2022 at 2:52 pm

  Hi guys. I want to import a CSV and create a nicely-formatted table. I understand how to pickwhip a text layer’s source text property to one particular piece of data in the CSV. However, I want to get the whole column into a single text layer. So let’s say the first column of my CSV is years, 2000 to 2022. How can I get a text layer filled with a vertical list of all those years, using one expression? Bonus: I’d like to add two sliders, “row offset” and “number of rows” that allow me to specify which rows are brought in.

  If I could get this working for one text layer then I could do other text layers for the other columns, pulling the same rows. Then all I have to do is create formulas that space everything out nicely.

  Thanks.

  Matthew Belinkie replied 4 years, 1 month ago 3 Members · 3 Replies
• 3 Replies

• 

  Chris Voelz

  March 23, 2022 at 4:04 pm

  You’ll just have to assemble the data into a single text layer.

  row1 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([0,0]);
  row2 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([0,1]);
  row3 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([0,2]);
  row4 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([0,3]);
  row5 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([0,4]);
  row1 + "\r" + row2 + "\r" + row3 + "\r" + row4 + "\r" + row5 //"\r" adds a return

  If you want a slider to control the offset you can just use it’s data in dataValue.

  rowoffset = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
  row1 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([1,0 + rowoffset]);
  row2 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([1,1 + rowoffset]);
  row3 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([1,2 + rowoffset]);
  row1 + "\r" + row2 + "\r" + row3

  Row offset is easier than controlling the number of rows. That would be a harder task since you would need to anticipate all the different values. Is it going to be 1 row or 100? No mater what you would need to code all those variables.

  numrows = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
  rowoffset = effect("Slider Control")("Slider");
  row1 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([1,0 + rowoffset]);
  row2 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([1,1 + rowoffset]);
  row3 = footage("your.csv").dataValue([1,2 + rowoffset]);
  R1 = row1;
  R2 = row1 + "\r" + row2;
  R3 = row1 + "\r" + row2 + "\r" + row3;
  if (numrows == 1) {R1}
  else if (numrows == 2) {R2}
  else {R3}
• 

  Filip Vandueren

  March 23, 2022 at 4:40 pm

  https://aescripts.com/express-table/

  seems like your ticket.
• 

  Matthew Belinkie

  March 24, 2022 at 1:08 am

  Thank you! I’ll see if I can make this work.

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