How do I split apart a CSV string in Ruby?

Question

I have this line as an example from a CSV file:

2412,21,\"Which of the following is not found in all cells?\",\"Curriculum\",\"Life and Living Processes, Lif         


        

Answer 1

This is not a suitable task for regular expressions. You need a CSV parser, and Ruby has one built in:

http://ruby-doc.org/stdlib/libdoc/csv/rdoc/classes/CSV.html

And an arguably superior 3rd part library:

http://fastercsv.rubyforge.org/