How can I read a file that is comma delimited but includes a comma in the string?

Anonymous Monk has asked for the wisdom of the Perl Monks concerning the following question:

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Re: How can I read a file that is comma delimited but includes a comma in the string? by Ovid (Cardinal) on May 27, 2003 at 23:48 UTC
If another program is writing that file out, then you need to go to the author of that program and tell them to either learn how to create proper CSV files or pick a format that they can actually use. That line would typically have the last field quoted. If it's always the case that the last field might have commas and the previous fields never have commas, you could do a restricted split: `my @fields = split ',', $data, 5;` [download] I wouldn't do that, though, because you don't know what's going to change in the future. Whatever program you have creating the CSV data is writing bad data and you shouldn't have to put up with that. Cheers, Ovid New address of my CGI Course. Silence is Evil (feel free to copy and distribute widely - note copyright text)	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: How can I read a file that is comma delimited but includes a comma in the string? by Anonymous Monk on May 28, 2003 at 00:00 UTC
if all fields were in double quotes then how could I include it and not print the quotes?	[reply]
Re: Re: Re: How can I read a file that is comma delimited but includes a comma in the string? by Ovid (Cardinal) on May 28, 2003 at 00:13 UTC
Directly from the POD of Text::CSV_XS: require Text::CSV_XS; my $csv = Text::CSV_XS->new; my $column = ''; my $sample_input_string = '"I said, ""Hi!""",Yes,"",2.34,,"1.09" +'; if ($csv->parse($sample_input_string)) { my @field = $csv->fields; my $count = 0; for $column (@field) { print ++$count, " => ", $column, "\n"; } print "\n"; } else { my $err = $csv->error_input; print "parse() failed on argument: ", $err, "\n"; } my @sample_input_fields = ('You said, "Hello!"', 5.67, 'Surely', '', '3.14159'); if ($csv->combine(@sample_input_fields)) { my $string = $csv->string; print $string, "\n"; } else { my $err = $csv->error_input; print "combine() failed on argument: ", $err, "\n"; } [download] Cheers, Ovid New address of my CGI Course. Silence is Evil (feel free to copy and distribute widely - note copyright text)	[reply] [d/l]
Re: Re: Re: How can I read a file that is comma delimited but includes a comma in the string? by arturo (Vicar) on May 28, 2003 at 00:05 UTC
The Perl module Text::CSV can be really helpful here, since it's designed to handle things like quotes for you. If not P, what? Q maybe? "Sidney Morgenbesser"	[reply]
Re: How can I read a file that is comma delimited but includes a comma in the string? by Skeeve (Parson) on May 28, 2003 at 06:54 UTC
If these conditions are met: There are always 5 Fields Additional commas only appear in the fifth field then this code will give you the desired result: `while ($line=<DATA>) { chomp $line; ($char, $num1, $num2, $num3, $commafield)=split(/,/,$line,5); print <<MYDATA; $char $num1 $num2 $num3 $commafield ------- MYDATA } __DATA__ R,2164,27-2164,270102,Add Terminal Server to John, Jane, and Georges $,1111,22-2222,333333,Ignore mails from support, microsoft or bill` [download]	[reply] [d/l]
Re: How can I read a file that is comma delimited but includes a comma in the string? by TomDLux (Vicar) on May 27, 2003 at 23:59 UTC
If the field containing internal commas is quoted: http://search.cpan.org In the search box, type CSV. If the internal commas cannot be distinguished from commas which separate fields, explain to the person who wrote the code feeding you that output that WalMart has a special on machine guns this week.	[reply]


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