OpenCSV: How to create CSV file from POJO with custom column headers and custom column positions?

Question

I have created a MappingsBean class where all the columns of the CSV file are specified. Next I parse XML files and create a list of mappingbeans. Then I write that data int

Answer 1

Corrected above answer to match with newer version.

package csvpojo;

import org.apache.commons.lang3.StringUtils;

import com.opencsv.bean.BeanField;
import com.opencsv.bean.ColumnPositionMappingStrategy;
import com.opencsv.bean.CsvBindByName;
import com.opencsv.exceptions.CsvRequiredFieldEmptyException;

class CustomMappingStrategy extends ColumnPositionMappingStrategy {
    @Override
    public String[] generateHeader(T bean) throws CsvRequiredFieldEmptyException {

super.setColumnMapping(new String[ FieldUtils.getAllFields(bean.getClass()).length]);
        final int numColumns = findMaxFieldIndex();
        if (!isAnnotationDriven() || numColumns == -1) {
            return super.generateHeader(bean);
        }

        String[] header = new String[numColumns + 1];

        BeanField beanField;
        for (int i = 0; i <= numColumns; i++) {
            beanField = findField(i);
            String columnHeaderName = extractHeaderName(beanField);
            header[i] = columnHeaderName;
        }
        return header;
    }

    private String extractHeaderName(final BeanField beanField) {
        if (beanField == null || beanField.getField() == null
                || beanField.getField().getDeclaredAnnotationsByType(CsvBindByName.class).length == 0) {
            return StringUtils.EMPTY;
        }

        final CsvBindByName bindByNameAnnotation = beanField.getField()
                .getDeclaredAnnotationsByType(CsvBindByName.class)[0];
        return bindByNameAnnotation.column();
    }
}

Then call this to generate CSV. I have used Visitors as my POJO to populate, update wherever necessary.

        CustomMappingStrategy mappingStrategy = new CustomMappingStrategy<>();
        mappingStrategy.setType(Visitors.class);
        // writing sample
        List beans2 = new ArrayList();

        Visitors v = new Visitors();
        v.set_1_firstName(" test1");
        v.set_2_lastName("lastname1");
        v.set_3_visitsToWebsite("876");
        beans2.add(v);

        v = new Visitors();
        v.set_1_firstName(" firstsample2");
        v.set_2_lastName("lastname2");
        v.set_3_visitsToWebsite("777");
        beans2.add(v);

        Writer writer = new FileWriter("G://output.csv");
        StatefulBeanToCsv beanToCsv = new StatefulBeanToCsvBuilder(writer)
                .withMappingStrategy(mappingStrategy).withSeparator(',').withApplyQuotesToAll(false).build();
        beanToCsv.write(beans2);
        writer.close();

My bean annotations looks like this

 @CsvBindByName (column = "First Name", required = true)
 @CsvBindByPosition(position=1)
 private String firstName;


 @CsvBindByName (column = "Last Name", required = true)
 @CsvBindByPosition(position=0)
 private String lastName;