ToT for CSV: accessing open data CSV files through SQL

Abstract

Recently, the push for open data has been very strong, and more and more sources, such as governments are sharing data such as weather records or demographic statistics. The Remote Table Access (RTA) system allows the easy publication of data from a relational database, and its use through SQL-like queries by remote users. Still, the data currently being shared as open data comes in many formats, not always directly integrable with relational databases, and many sources publish data as raw CSV, XML or even PDF files. These files then need to be downloaded, parsed, and integrated with the final user's data, often in a relational database. In this work, we present Table on Top (ToT) for CSV, an extension of the RTA system that allows the easy publication and access of data contained in CSV files through RTA.