CSV Parse Test

Using the Kaggle dataset for student records: https://www.kaggle.com/datasets/muhammadroshaanriaz/students-performance-dataset-cleaned/data

The idea for this was to practice using Zig and learn how to use it in a sort of real scenario for parsing data.

The data is read, parsed to how I wanted it, then output in the terminal.

The output file is more compact reducing the size from ~550Kb -> ~320Kb.

Prerequisites

• Zig 0.14.1 (latest as of Sept 2025)
• CSV file (the one from Kaggle) -> students.csv

Example Input

0,group B,bachelor's degree,1,0,72,72,74,218,72.66666666666667
0,group C,some college,1,1,69,90,88,247,82.33333333333333
0,group B,master's degree,1,0,90,95,93,278,92.66666666666667
1,group A,associate's degree,0,0,47,57,44,148,49.333333333333336
1,group C,some college,1,0,76,78,75,229,76.33333333333333
...

Example Output

106046538, 158428504, 114733021, 562814124, 693315403, 97642958, 91631580, 621417895, 749740099, 76127794, 701406004, 768219691, 80767177, 561226822, 46963386, 139552206, 685124822, 67407900...

This allows for a more optimized size which is better for when reading it and storing in a db or whatever a user would want.

Execution Time

I can run the program and it takes about 0.083 total seconds to run on my machine.

./main  0.03s user 0.06s system 98% cpu 0.083 total

Compression

The data is being compressed for better storage of data by taking the input values, storing as correct unisigned integer values, then turning that data into a hex value. Further Compression can be done via gzip and other methods.

56.6kB -> 10.9kB

Changelog

• 2025-09-03: compressing output data to hex value
• 2025-09-03: Updated code to work with the latest Zig version

Notes

The code needs some obvious improvements but this is mainly so I can learn and improve as I learn.