Dealing with commas in a CSV file

Question

I am looking for suggestions on how to handle a csv file that is being created, then uploaded by our customers, and that may have a comma in a value, like a company name.

Answer 1

Use a tab character (\t) to separate the fields.

Answer 2

You can read the csv file like this.

this makes use of splits and takes care of spaces.

ArrayList List = new ArrayList();
static ServerSocket Server;
static Socket socket;
static ArrayList<Object> list = new ArrayList<Object>();


public static void ReadFromXcel() throws FileNotFoundException
{   
    File f = new File("Book.csv");
    Scanner in = new Scanner(f);
    int count  =0;
    String[] date;
    String[] name;
    String[] Temp = new String[10];
    String[] Temp2 = new String[10];
    String[] numbers;
    ArrayList<String[]> List = new ArrayList<String[]>();
    HashMap m = new HashMap();

         in.nextLine();
         date = in.nextLine().split(",");
         name = in.nextLine().split(",");
         numbers = in.nextLine().split(",");
         while(in.hasNext())
         {
             String[] one = in.nextLine().split(",");
             List.add(one);
         }
         int xount = 0;
         //Making sure the lines don't start with a blank
         for(int y = 0; y<= date.length-1; y++)
         {
             if(!date[y].equals(""))
             {   
                 Temp[xount] = date[y];
                 Temp2[xount] = name[y];
                 xount++;
             }
         }

         date = Temp;
         name =Temp2;
         int counter = 0;
         while(counter < List.size())
         {
             String[] list = List.get(counter);
             String sNo = list[0];
             String Surname = list[1];
             String Name = list[2];
             for(int x = 3; x < list.length; x++)
             {           
                 m.put(numbers[x], list[x]);
             }
            Object newOne = new newOne(sNo, Name, Surname, m, false);
             StudentList.add(s);
             System.out.println(s.sNo);
             counter++;
         }

Answer 3

    public static IEnumerable<string> LineSplitter(this string line, char 
         separator, char skip = '"')
    {
        var fieldStart = 0;
        for (var i = 0; i < line.Length; i++)
        {
            if (line[i] == separator)
            {
                yield return line.Substring(fieldStart, i - fieldStart);
                fieldStart = i + 1;
            }
            else if (i == line.Length - 1)
            {
                yield return line.Substring(fieldStart, i - fieldStart + 1);
                fieldStart = i + 1;
            }

            if (line[i] == '"')
                for (i++; i < line.Length && line[i] != skip; i++) { }
        }

        if (line[line.Length - 1] == separator)
        {
            yield return string.Empty;
        }
    }