How can I split a comma-delimited string when the fields can have commas in them?

[dbetz]

Normally I would use split on ',', but that will not work because of the comma embedded within certain fields. Is there a "perl" way to parse this into its proper fields?

"R",     "2164",     "27-2164",     "270102",
"Add Terminal Server to John, Jane, and George's PC's",
"3/13/00",    "3/27/00",    "00/00/00",    "02:00:00", 
"Jane Doe",     " 3 - Released", "Jane Doe"

Edited by davido: Added code tags and more legible formatting.

Originally posted as a Categorized Question.

[chromatic]

The best answer is to use Text::CSV from CPAN. Otherwise, you'll have to craft a regex which can handle obscure cases like commas between quotes, escaped quotes within quotes, and other funny stuff like that.

One possibility is:

  $string =~ m!"*?([^,])"*?(?:=,)!;

[turnstep]

Here's an answer from Mastering Regular Expressions:

sub parse_csv {
  my $text = shift; ## record containing comma-separated values
  my @new = ();
  push(@new, $+) while $text =~ m{
    ## the first part groups the phrase inside the quotes
    "([^\"\\]*(?:\\.[^\"\\]*)*)",?
      | ([^,]+),?
      | ,
    }gx;
    push(@new, undef) if substr($text, -1,1) eq ',';
    return @new; ## list of values that were comma-spearated
}
## Use like this: @goodlist = parse_csv($csvlist);

Ugly, to be sure, but the complexity level really kicks up a notch when you add the delimiters into the fields themselves. Also, the above snippet allows quotes inside the fields, as long as they are backslashed.

[Anonymous Monk]

How about

pop:s/^"//;chop;split'","';

It doesn't handle any escaped quotes but you end with the data in @_
David Pardo

Originally posted as a Categorized Answer.