This is probably not the best way either, but here's how I handled a similar
situation.
open(INFILE,"myfile.csv");
while(<INFILE>){
chomp $_;
my @newarray;
my @array = split /\"/,$_; #First split by quotes
for(my $i = 0;$array[$i];$i++){
if(!($i % 2)){ #For even numbers split further by commas
push @newarray,(split /,/,$array[$i]);
}else{ #For odd numbers leave intact
push @newarray,$array[$i];
}
}
foreach(@newarray){
if($_ ne ''){ #remove empty strings
print "$_\n";
}
}
}
of course, this assumes that you don't occasionally have empty strings in
your text.
-----Original Message-----
From: Steven Arbitman [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Sent: Monday, February 11, 2002 6:23 PM
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Parsing a .csv file
Hi all,
I know parsing a comma-separated value file should be easy:
@array = split /,/; # just split the line on commas
However, my input csv file looks like this:
Name,"street,city,state,zip",phone,email,"comments, may have commas, 2"
Note, not all fields have quotes, only those which contain commas have
quotes.
Even if I could get the input revised to split the address into several
different fields (which I know would be a good idea), the comments remain a
problem.
I can solve the problem using the substr function to examine the incoming
text char by char, replacing commas outside quotes with something else
(tabs), and leaving commas inside quotes, then splitting the line on tabs:
$len = length ();
for ($in_quotes=$i=0; $i<$len; $i++) {
if (substr($_,$i,1) eq "," and !$in_quotes) {
substr($_,$i,1) = "\t";
} elsif (substr($_,$i,1) eq '"') {
substr($_,$i,1)= " ";
if ($in_quotes) {$in_quotes = 0;}
else {$in_quotes = 1;}
}
}
@infields = split /\t/;
This has got to be the slowest most inelegant way possible, but I don't see
another. Is there a better way?
Thanks,
Steve
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
This email may contain confidential and privileged
material for the sole use of the intended recipient.
If you are not the intended recipient, please contact
the sender and delete all copies.
--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
