Working with Inline Data tables in TypeScript

Updated May 9, 2026

Inline data handling for tables embedded directly in resource definitions.

Installation

npm install fairspec

Getting Started

The Inline plugin provides:

loadInlineTable - Load tables from inline data
InlinePlugin - Plugin for framework integration

For example:

import { loadInlineTable } from "fairspec"

const table = await loadInlineTable({
  data: [
    { id: 1, name: "Alice" },
    { id: 2, name: "Bob" },
  ],
})

Basic Usage

Object Format Data

The most common format is an array of objects:

import { loadInlineTable } from "fairspec"

const table = await loadInlineTable({
  data: [
    { id: 1, name: "english", native: "English" },
    { id: 2, name: "chinese", native: "中文" },
    { id: 3, name: "spanish", native: "Español" },
  ],
})

Array Format Data

You can also use array-of-arrays format with the first row as headers:

import { loadInlineTable } from "fairspec"

const table = await loadInlineTable({
  data: [
    ["id", "name", "native"],
    [1, "english", "English"],
    [2, "chinese", "中文"],
    [3, "spanish", "Español"],
  ],
})

Advanced Features

With Table Schema

Provide a Table Schema for type validation and conversion:

import { loadInlineTable } from "fairspec"

const table = await loadInlineTable({
  data: [
    { id: 1, name: "english", active: true },
    { id: 2, name: "chinese", active: false },
  ],
  tableSchema: {
    properties: {
      id: { type: "integer" },
      name: { type: "string" },
      active: { type: "boolean" },
    },
  },
})

Mixed with File Data

Inline data can be used alongside file-based resources in datasets:

import { loadInlineTable, loadCsvTable } from "fairspec"

// Load inline reference data
const languages = await loadInlineTable({
  name: "languages",
  data: [
    { id: 1, name: "english" },
    { id: 2, name: "chinese" },
  ],
})

// Load main data from file
const users = await loadCsvTable({
  name: "users",
  data: "users.csv",
})

Resource Metadata

You can include metadata with inline data resources:

import { loadInlineTable } from "fairspec"

const table = await loadInlineTable({
  name: "countries",
  title: "Country Reference Data",
  description: "ISO country codes and names",
  data: [
    { code: "US", name: "United States" },
    { code: "CN", name: "China" },
    { code: "ES", name: "Spain" },
  ],
  tableSchema: {
    properties: {
      code: { type: "string" },
      name: { type: "string" },
    },
  },
})

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