Question

Escaping Comma in CSV.

Asked by: ymk_career

Hi Experts,
 
How to escape the comma's in the CSV file?
For Ex:

abc,adb,ada,"ads,asd",asdd

In this case how can I escape the comma in "ads,asd".
I have the double quotes generated if the data contains a comma.

I am reading the CSV file into a list and then breaking the list according to the delimiters.

I tried ReplaceNoCase(record,'","',"^#^","ALL") such that the comma in the data becomes ^#^ and then finally replace it with comma while inserting.

But this doesn't work.

Please suggest some solutions.

Thanks,
MK

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Asked On
2003-02-02 at 13:55:28ID20493579
Tags

csv

,

comma

,

escaping

Topic

ColdFusion Application Server

Participating Experts
3
Points
50
Comments
11

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Answers

 

by: HamdyHassanPosted on 2003-02-02 at 17:15:53ID: 7864906

 

by: ymk_careerPosted on 2003-02-03 at 09:55:23ID: 7869205

Hamdy,
I have gone through the tutorial and I have some problems reading directly from the excel sheet with my design. So, I am reading the data from a CSV file.

I could read everything but it's failing if the data has a comma. So, If I can escape the comma in the data my problem is solved.

And good thing is that coldfusion is appending double quotes when the data has the delimiter( In this case its a comma). So I just need to look for the double quotes and then change the commas with in the Double Quotes to some thing like "^#!^" and then read the data and finally replace it with comma while inserting it into database.

Please suggest me some solutions.

Thanks,
MK

 

by: ymk_careerPosted on 2003-02-03 at 10:00:43ID: 7869241

Hamdy,
I have gone through the tutorial and I have some problems reading directly from the excel sheet with my design. So, I am reading the data from a CSV file.

I could read everything but it's failing if the data has a comma. So, If I can escape the comma in the data my problem is solved.

And good thing is that coldfusion is appending double quotes when the data has the delimiter( In this case its a comma). So I just need to look for the double quotes and then change the commas with in the Double Quotes to some thing like "^#!^" and then read the data and finally replace it with comma while inserting it into database.

Please suggest me some solutions.

Thanks,
MK

 

by: ymk_careerPosted on 2003-02-03 at 10:28:51ID: 7869395

Hamdy,
I have gone through the tutorial and I have some problems reading directly from the excel sheet with my design. So, I am reading the data from a CSV file.

I could read everything but it's failing if the data has a comma. So, If I can escape the comma in the data my problem is solved.

And good thing is that coldfusion is appending double quotes when the data has the delimiter( In this case its a comma). So I just need to look for the double quotes and then change the commas with in the Double Quotes to some thing like "^#!^" and then read the data and finally replace it with comma while inserting it into database.

Please suggest me some solutions.

Thanks,
MK

 

by: ymk_careerPosted on 2003-02-03 at 11:09:56ID: 7869629

Hamdy,
I have gone through the tutorial and I have some problems reading directly from the excel sheet with my design. So, I am reading the data from a CSV file.

I could read everything but it's failing if the data has a comma. So, If I can escape the comma in the data my problem is solved.

And good thing is that coldfusion is appending double quotes when the data has the delimiter( In this case its a comma). So I just need to look for the double quotes and then change the commas with in the Double Quotes to some thing like "^#!^" and then read the data and finally replace it with comma while inserting it into database.

Please suggest me some solutions.

Thanks,
MK

 

by: HamdyHassanPosted on 2003-02-03 at 14:09:24ID: 7870684

ok, check the following
http://www.defusion.com/articles/index.cfm?ArticleID=206

I know you will still have an issue about this "x,x"
Hamdy

 

by: HamdyHassanPosted on 2003-02-03 at 14:17:54ID: 7870734

Hi

I think you need another idea to avoid csv pains

At your excel sheet, write a small macro to exract what you need into text file with "|" delimiter
you could ask about that at Excel topics.

or you could write a macro to replace any "," with "@" for example, export to csv and at coldfusion replace it back

Hamdy

 

by: HamdyHassanPosted on 2003-03-05 at 05:37:14ID: 8071520

Here is perl script using regexpr to do what you need

$in = '"last, first",,,"some,,, text","",,';
$out = '';
while (($not_quoted, $quoted, $remainder) = ($in =~ m/^([^\"]*)\"([^\"]*)\"(.*)$/)) {
$quoted =~ s/,//g;
$out .= $not_quoted . '"' . $quoted . '"';
$in = $remainder;
}
$out .= $in;
print "$out\n";

 

by: Ken-dohPosted on 2003-06-03 at 04:04:13ID: 8637340

cfregexp is the cold fusion equivelant  for cf not perl

nice and easy I can paste you code but its pretty straight forward.

 

by: mrichmonPosted on 2004-04-27 at 09:57:46ID: 10930610

No comment has been added lately, so it's time to clean up this question.
I will leave the following recommendation in the Cleanup topic area:

Accept HamdyHassan

Please leave any comments here within the next four days.

mrichmon
EE Cleanup Volunteer

20120131-EE-VQP-002

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