CSV file creation - robotframework - robotframework

Question

I want to create csv file which contains:
Header1,Header2,Header3
Value1,Value2,Value3
Value11,Value22,Value33
I also want to dynamically generate the values and append to the file; How can this be achieved in robotframework?

Answer 1

You could do this with a number of helper keywords, although it's not clear exactly what you need but you can create a number of header values dynamically by appending to a list based on a specified number of columns as well as two other keywords where the first creates a list of random values based on the header count and another that appends that list of values to a list which would effectively be your row. You can have that also in a for loop which calls the keyword to generate the row values until reaching the specified number of rows.
You can probably do without the csv library if you just convert the list of headers/rows to a comma seperated string and then use standard Append to File keyword to append this string.
So in summary, you could define keywords like the following:
Generate Header
Generate Set of Random Rows
Generate Random Row of Values
Convert List to Comma Seperated String
Generate CSV File
You will also need:
The test case itself which calls some of the keywords (Generate Header, Generate Set of Random Rows and Generate CSV File)
In Variable section a defined header count and row count
Libraries (String, Collections and OperatingSystem)
*** Settings ***
Library String
Library Collections
Library OperatingSystem
*** Variables ***
${header_count} 5 # Change this for a different number of headers
${row_count} 20 # Change this for a different number of rows
*** Test Cases ***
Scenario: Create CSV With Random Data
${header} Generate Header ${header_count}
${data} Generate Set of Random Rows ${header_count} ${row_count}
Generate CSV File ${header} ${data}
*** Keywords ***
Generate Header
[Documentation] Generate a number of headers, stored in a list with prefix "Header" and Suffixed with the current index of the iteration
[Arguments] ${header_count}
#{header_list} Create List
FOR ${header_num} IN RANGE 1 ${header_count}+1
Append To List ${header_list} Header${header_num}
END
[Return] ${header_list}
Generate Set of Random Rows
[Documentation] Takes the header count and row count which is used to create a list of lists containing randomly generated strings
[Arguments] ${header_count} ${row_count}
#{random_row_list} Create List
FOR ${row} IN RANGE 0 ${row_count}
${values} Generate Random Row Of Values ${header_count}
Append To List ${random_row_list} ${values}
END
[Return] ${random_row_list}
Generate Random Row Of Values
[Documentation] Takes header count to derive the amount of random strings to append to a list
[Arguments] ${header_count}
#{random_value_list} Create List
FOR ${column} IN RANGE 0 ${header_count}
${value} Generate Random String
Append To List ${random_value_list} ${value}
END
[Return] ${random_value_list}
Convert List To Comma Seperated String
[Documentation] Converts list values to string so they can be appended to csv file
[Arguments] ${values}
${converted_values} Evaluate ", ".join(${values})
[Return] ${converted_values}
Generate CSV File
[Documentation] Takes header (list of column headers) and data (List containing nested list of row values)
[Arguments] ${header} ${data}
Create File test.csv
${header_string} Convert List To Comma Seperated String ${header}
# Create the header
Append To File test.csv ${header_string}
# Append all the values row by row
FOR ${row} IN #{data}
${row_values} Convert List To Comma Seperated String ${row}
Append To File test.csv \n${row_values}
END