Re: Importing/parsing CSV files
Re: Importing/parsing CSV files
- Subject: Re: Importing/parsing CSV files
- From: Malcolm Fitzgerald <email@hidden>
- Date: Sat, 9 Sep 2006 06:12:31 +1000
Hi Mark,
I think Doug's advice to generate a parser for each data source is sage.
I'm feeling pernickity today, so I'll take up your response.
I said to Tom: "If you are going to go ahead there are some givens,
aren't there?" Then followed up with some things (which he probably
already knew) aimed at helping him to consider the problem he
presented.
each row must have a delimiter
Not if there's only one value in that row.
A row has to be defined even when it is empty. No delimiter: no row.
each row must have the same number of columns
Nope. It's a spreadsheet format. Different rows can have different
numbers of cells.
It may not have them in fact, but conceptually you are handling an
array which has x rows of y cols. This understanding can help to solve
the problem. If the machine outputting the data drops empty cells then
that is making the job of reconstruction harder.
If the number of columns is less than expected then the next row must
be considered.
Nope. Newline outside of quotation marks terminates the row always.
Yes, OK. But I didn't say anything about newline outside of quotation
marks. You did. In a few lines you'll use the example of a newline
within quotation marks yourself. Treat this as a possible example of a
newline within quotation marks and we'll be working together.
In the example sent to us several rows had some sort of new line marker
in the street addresses that caused a single record to run over several
rows. So a single row is not necessarily a single record. The number of
columns present in a row could indicate this.
The existence of ," or ", in a row demands a corresponding closing
quote
...which may be on the next line because of an embedded newline.
My point exactly. We are having to work with a format which allows a
record to run over several rows. So when there is no corresponding
closing quote on a line we have definitely got a multi-row record. Keep
looking for the closing quote!
We'll that's about it for this nit-picker.
malcolm
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