How can a Eigen matrix be written to file in CSV format? - csv

Question

Suppose I have a double Eigen matrix and I want to write it to a csv file. I find the way of writing into a file in raw format but I need commas between entries. Here is the code I foudn for simple writing.
void writeToCSVfile(string name, MatrixXd matrix)
{
ofstream file(name.c_str());
if (file.is_open())
{
file << matrix << '\n';
//file << "m" << '\n' << colm(matrix) << '\n';
}
}

Answer 1

Using format is a bit more concise:
// define the format you want, you only need one instance of this...
const static IOFormat CSVFormat(StreamPrecision, DontAlignCols, ", ", "\n");
...
void writeToCSVfile(string name, MatrixXd matrix)
{
ofstream file(name.c_str());
file << matrix.format(CSVFormat);
}

Answer 2

Here is what I came up;
void writeToCSVfile(string name, MatrixXd matrix)
{
ofstream file(name.c_str());
for(int i = 0; i < matrix.rows(); i++){
for(int j = 0; j < matrix.cols(); j++){
string str = lexical_cast<std::string>(matrix(i,j));
if(j+1 == matrix.cols()){
file<<str;
}else{
file<<str<<',';
}
}
file<<'\n';
}
}

Answer 3

This is the MWE to the solution given by Partha Lal.
// eigen2csv.cpp
#include <Eigen/Dense>
#include <iostream>
#include <fstream>
// define the format you want, you only need one instance of this...
// see https://eigen.tuxfamily.org/dox/structEigen_1_1IOFormat.html
const static Eigen::IOFormat CSVFormat(Eigen::StreamPrecision, Eigen::DontAlignCols, ", ", "\n");
// writing functions taking Eigen types as parameters,
// see https://eigen.tuxfamily.org/dox/TopicFunctionTakingEigenTypes.html
template <typename Derived>
void writeToCSVfile(std::string name, const Eigen::MatrixBase<Derived>& matrix)
{
std::ofstream file(name.c_str());
file << matrix.format(CSVFormat);
// file.close() is not necessary,
// desctructur closes file, see https://en.cppreference.com/w/cpp/io/basic_ofstream
}
int main()
{
Eigen::MatrixXd vals = Eigen::MatrixXd::Random(10, 3);
writeToCSVfile("test.csv", vals);
}
Compile with g++ eigen2csv.cpp -I<EigenIncludePath>.