How to read csv file that has ',' within data?

NOTSomebody

I am new to Perl programming and I faced a problem now.

I need to process a csv file and as for now, if the string is like '123' or 'asd', I could do it without any problem because it is commas inbetween data. But if I want to process like 'asd,asd,asd', I do not know how to read the whole string with the commas because as of now, I use split ',' to get data from different field of the csv. please help!!!

nithinpes

I believe you have tried writing the code. But instead of putting it in plain words, it would have been better if you posted the piece of script that you tried and the sample data.
Suppose, your data is as below:

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'asd,asd,asd','123','123'

'asd','dgf','pqr'

One way of looking at the requirement is, you would essentially need to take out the string within single quotes (' ') rather than that delimited by comma(,). You can acheive this through regex.
The code:

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use strict;

open (IN,'input_file') or die "$!"; 

my @data;

 while (<IN>) {

push @data, $1 while(/('.+?')/g); #get the string surrounded with single-quotes

}

print "$_\n" foreach(@data);

will produce the output:

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'asd,asd,asd'

'123'

'123'

'asd'

'asd'

'asd'

-Nithin

KevinADC

In a properly formatted CSV file, some of the data will be quoted and some will not be. The Text::CSV_XS module can correctly parse a CSV file with embedded commas as long as that particular field is quoted.

NOTSomebody

Thanks for the prompt reply.

My data was input through excel then save under csv. In the excel, i gt few fields... Lets say is "abc,def,ghi",123,asd

I tried this

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 my $csv = "test.csv";

my @data = read_file($csv);
 
foreach($a=1; $a<@data.""; $a++)

{

    print @data[$a];

}
 
sub read_file{

    open(F, $_[0]) || die("Can't open file $_[0]!");

    my @data = <F>;

    close F;

    return @data;

}

the output is "abc,def,ghi",123,asd

What i 1 is that if i to assign "abc,def,ghi" to $name, how do i get the data within the double quote and also how to assign the 123 and asd which doesnt have the double quote as output to be $contact_no and $address respectively?

I tried using the delimited comma, but within the double quote, there are 2 commas, as a result, i will have 5 individual data...

KevinADC

I still recommend you use Text::CSV_XS but here is a way to do it without the module:

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 while (<DATA>) {

    my @new  = ();

    push(@new, $+) while $_ =~ m{

        # the first part groups the phrase inside the quotes.

        # see explanation of this pattern in MRE

        "([^\"\\]*(?:\\.[^\"\\]*)*)",?

           |  ([^,]+),?

           | ,

       }gx;

       push(@new, undef) if substr($_, -1,1) eq ',';

       print "$_\n" for @new;

}  
 
__DATA__

"abc,def,ghi",123,asd

The solution is from the Perl CookBook which got the regexp from "Mastering Regular Expressions". Don't ask me to explain the regexp, it confuses the hell out of me.

NOTSomebody

Thanks alot kevin.

But, if i want to use the module, do you mind if you actually show me an example? thanks alot in advance... :p

KevinADC

The modules documentation has examples. You can find the documentation on CPAN or google for Text::CSV_XS.

NOTSomebody

Just for information, may i know are you from Singapore?

KevinADC

Just for information, may i know are you from Singapore?

If you are asking me, no, I am not from Singapore. And I have never been there.

How to read csv file that has ',' within data?

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