Re: CSV Parsing algorithms in Java

Simon Brooke wrote:


     There is no one official "CSV format," but even the simple
version described at http://www.wotsit.org/ is not parseable by
a mere StringTokenizer (which the JavaDoc calls a "legacy class"
whose use in new code is "discouraged," by the way).

    Brooke, 21 Elm Street
    // space before '2' should vanish but embedded spaces
    // should remain

    "Brooke, Simon" , 21 Elm Street
    // first comma does not end a field, quotes disappear,
    // both spaces surrounding second comma disappear

    "Brooke, Simon" , """The Beeches"", Herts"
    // doubled quotes become singles, only one of the three
    // commas is a field separator, more disappearing and
    // retained spaces

    "Brooke, Simon" , "21 Elm Street
    Apartment 3B"
    // embedded newline in second field

     Parsing CSV -- even allowing for some variations beyond the
wotsit description -- is not difficult, but not trivial. My own
CSVReader class runs to 376 lines, including JavaDoc. (It could
probably be tightened a bit; I wrote it as an exercise when I was
new to Java and would likely do things differently nowadays.)

--
Eric Sosman
esosman@acm-dot-org.invalid