What I have:
A CSV file exported from Excel along with double-quotes 
label1,label2
item1a,item2a
item1c,"item2c,c"
item1b,item2b

What I want:
To read the file (stored on the server) and convert to a JavaScript array of objects 
var my_object_array = [
     { my_col1_val: 'item1a', my_col2_val: 'item2a' },
     { my_col1_val: 'item1b', my_col2_val: 'item2b' },
     { my_col1_val: 'item1c', my_col2_val: 'item2c,c' }
];
What I want again:
  • Read a CSV file already uploaded with JavaScript
  • Populate a JS array with each row
  • Account for strings containing double-quotes (and commas to ignore)
  • Sort the resulting object array

How?
The function with comments:
- Uses deprecated XMLHttpRequest to get file contents
- Loops through each row and splits by commas (not within quotes)
- Sorts the final array by a object label
function populate_array_from_csv(this_file){

        // using deprecated XMLHttpRequest to read file
        // (works at time of print (2015-10-05))
        var xhr = !window.XMLHttpRequest ? new ActiveXObject('Microsoft.XMLHTTP') : new XMLHttpRequest();

        // open the file
        // use GET for faster performance but use POST (no size limits) for large files
        xhr.open('POST', this_file, false);  

        // set header to CSV mimetype
        xhr.setRequestHeader('Content-Type', 'text/csv');

        // send request to the server
        xhr.send();

        // return contents of target file to JS variable
        var my_csv_file_contents = xhr.responseText;

        // split contents into array of rows
        // store each line of the CSV file into a JS array
        var my_csv_rows_array = my_csv_file_contents.split("\n");

        // declare a blank array to store file contents
        var obj_temp = [];

        // loop through JS array using Array.prototype.forEach()
        my_csv_rows_array.forEach( function (row_content, row_index) {

                // clear and declare the array
                var column_values = [];         
                
                // regex to ignore commas between double-quotes
                var column_values = row_content.split(/,(?=(?:(?:[^"]*"){2})*[^"]*$)/);

                // prevents JS error where results unmatched
                column_values = column_values || [];    

                // ignore row if first item is blank (allows for blank excel lines)
                if(column_values[0] != ''){

                        // remove any/all double-quotes in this column value  // found this method more reliable than using regex
                        removed_quotes = column_values[1].split('"').join('');

                        // populate my array with an object
                        obj_temp.push({ my_col1_val: column_values[0], my_col2_val: removed_quotes });
                }
        });

        // sorts the array by values in column 2 (string: my_col2_val)
        obj_temp.sort(function(a,b) {
                var x = a.my_col2_val.toLowerCase();
                var y = b.my_col2_val.toLowerCase();
                return x < y ? -1 : x > y ? 1 : 0;
        });

        // return the array of objects
        return obj_temp;
}

// usage:
//      where "this_file_url" is the target CSV to read (relative URL from the HTML file launching this function (not from the if external JS))
//      add parameters to this function to specify rows based on a criteria
var my_array = populate_array_from_csv(this_file_url);

// eg. var my_array = populate_array_from_csv('./mydata/data.csv');
// ---- End-ofFile

Additional Information(s):