CSV(comma separated values) files

[Tony Johansson]

Hello!

What does it mean when it says that there is no information about the data
types of the data extracted from a CSV file.

Can somebody this.

//Tony

[rossum]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:49:19 +0200, "Tony Johansson"
<jo*****************@telia.comwrote:

>Hello!

What does it mean when it says that there is no information about the data
types of the data extracted from a CSV file.

Can somebody this.

//Tony

Take a simple example, a CSV file containing "123". You cannot tell
from the CSV file alone whether this is the integer 123, the double
123.0, the string "123" or the character array {'1', '2', '3'}.

When you convert some data into a string for a CSV file much of the
type information is lost.

HTH

rossum

[Jon Skeet [C# MVP]]

On Aug 11, 12:49*pm, "Tony Johansson" <[e-mail]>
wrote:

What does it mean when it says that there is no information about the data
types of the data extracted from a CSV file.

It would help if you'd clarify what "it" is here.

Jon

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?=]

Tony Johansson wrote:

What does it mean when it says that there is no information about the data
types of the data extracted from a CSV file.

The CSV does not contain information about the data type of each column.

It will be a guess based on the values.

Arne

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?=]

rossum wrote:

On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 13:49:19 +0200, "Tony Johansson"
<jo*****************@telia.comwrote:

>What does it mean when it says that there is no information about the data
types of the data extracted from a CSV file.

Take a simple example, a CSV file containing "123". You cannot tell
from the CSV file alone whether this is the integer 123, the double
123.0, the string "123" or the character array {'1', '2', '3'}.

Strings are usually quoted and arrays not used in CSV, so some
types can be ruled out.

Arne

[MC]

Strings are usually quoted and arrays not used in CSV, so some

types can be ruled out.

Speaking of which, is there an "official syntax" for CSV files somewhere,
and/or a C# tool to parse them?

[John Baird]

http://www.creativyst.com/Doc/Articles/CSV/CSV01.htm shows the rules for
csv file creation. There are no standard c# tools that I know of to
parse them, but the Code Project has a few public projects which will do
this for you or point you in the right direction to roll your own.

It's fairly easy to parse them by using the string.split functionality
of c#. I have a number of samples if you need some help.


"MC" <fo**************@www.ai.uga.edu.slash.mcwrote in message
news:#M**************@TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl:

Strings are usually quoted and arrays not used in CSV, so some
types can be ruled out.

Speaking of which, is there an "official syntax" for CSV files somewhere,
and/or a C# tool to parse them?

[=?ISO-8859-1?Q?Arne_Vajh=F8j?=]

MC wrote:

>Strings are usually quoted and arrays not used in CSV, so some
types can be ruled out.

Speaking of which, is there an "official syntax" for CSV files somewhere,
and/or a C# tool to parse them?

I don't think there is a general definition.

But most programmers have an idea about what it is.

Export/import from/to Access shows some of the options.

The most common format is:
- comma between fields
- double quotes around text
- double quotes within text doubled
- one record per line

There actually is a standard:

http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc4180

but it i snot my impression that it is widely used
as a reference.

Arne

[Ken Foskey]

On Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:52:20 -0400, MC wrote:

>Strings are usually quoted and arrays not used in CSV, so some types
can be ruled out.

Speaking of which, is there an "official syntax" for CSV files
somewhere, and/or a C# tool to parse them?

I would strongly recommend that you don't use CSV at all. I believe that
CSV is the worst possible method of delivering data. I am aware of Excel
exporting data to CSV that imported differently.

Different programs do that handle Quotes properly for example 'O'Donnell'
should be 'O''Donnell'. If you have quote comma you are totally lost
'1 degree 0', something' A parser would take that as two fields, but is
it extracted as :1 degree 0:, :something': or as :something:. You can
never tell.

Ken

Ken

[=?UTF-8?B?QXJuZSBWYWpow7hq?=]

Ken Foskey wrote:

I would strongly recommend that you don't use CSV at all. I believe that
CSV is the worst possible method of delivering data.

The format has worked for a few decades. It can not be completely
hopeless. Usually the developers get it working.

I would also prefer XML as format, if starting white a blank
piece of paper. But that is often not the case. There are
lots of software out there that uses CSV.

Arne

[uma devi]

eg:
"uma","devi"
how can i get only strings without quotes and comma using c#

*** Sent via Developersdex http://www.developersdex.com ***