That's great, but it seems like a lot of work just to read in everything. Take a look at the sample that I did with the interpreter...
First, X is a simulated input line... --- x = " param1,param2,param3,param4,param5,param6,param7,param8,param9,comments blah , blah, test" --- Ok, so just like your first example, with commas in the comments. Next, let's parse that into the variables and seperate on the commas... without using the CSV module.. --- param1, param2, param3, param4, param5, param6, param7, param8, param9, comments = x.split(',',9) --- Simply, this splits on the commas, up to 9 times. So, no need to fix your input text. Now, the output... --- f.write(param1 + " " + param2 + " " + param3 + " " + param4 + " " + param5 + " " + param6 + " " + param7 + " " + param8 + " " + param9 + " " + "\"" comments + "\"" + "\n") --- Writes the file, no commas except in the comments, and the comments are enclosed in quote marks. Also, the line ends in a CR+LF (depending on O/S). Is that something similar to what you were looking for? It doesnt look like your file is properly formatted for CSV, hence I suggest not using the CSV module. If you want to make your file CSV compatible, it should have quotation marks around the comments, as they could include commas. -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list