3 ms·

I am not clear what "manipulate" means here -- what is the author trying to do with the comma separated values? FWIW, I can accomplish csv manipulation using a

• ekianjo 7y ago
  This is the best answer if the csv file is more or less standard.
• zaphirplane 7y ago
  The text in a column can be quoted and inside the quotes there can be escaped quotes or commas. It requires a lot of sed awk skills to merge two columns or delete a column. If at all possible
  • grumpy-cowboy 7y ago
    Yes, the "CSV road to hell": - comma separated, nothing escaped (crash when 1 column contains a comma) - comma separated, quotes around all elements, quotes not escaped - comma separated, double-quotes around all elements, double-quotes not escaped - comma separated, quotes around some elements, quotes not escaped - comma separated, double-quotes around some elements, double-quotes not escaped - comma separated, quotes around all elements, quotes escaped (using '') - comma separated, double-quotes around all elements, double-quotes escaped (using "") - comma separated, quotes around some elements, quotes escaped (using '') - comma separated, double-quotes around some elements, double-quotes escaped (using "") - comma separated, quotes around all elements, quotes escaped (using \') - comma separated, double-quotes around all elements, double-quotes escaped (using \") - comma separated, quotes around some elements, quotes escaped (using \') - comma separated, double-quotes around some elements, double-quotes escaped (using \") And the Microsoft format (where comma == semi-colon): - semi-colon separated, nothing escaped (crash when 1 column contains a comma) - semi-colon separated, quotes around all elements, quotes not escaped - semi-colon separated, double-quotes around all elements, double-quotes not escaped - semi-colon separated, quotes around some elements, quotes not escaped - semi-colon separated, double-quotes around some elements, double-quotes not escaped - semi-colon separated, quotes around all elements, quotes escaped (using '') - semi-colon separated, double-quotes around all elements, double-quotes escaped (using "") - semi-colon separated, quotes around some elements, quotes escaped (using '') - semi-colon separated, double-quotes around some elements, double-quotes escaped (using "") - semi-colon separated, quotes around all elements, quotes escaped (using \') - semi-colon separated, double-quotes around all elements, double-quotes escaped (using \") - semi-colon separated, quotes around some elements, quotes escaped (using \') - semi-colon separated, double-quotes around some elements, double-quotes escaped (using \") And I'm not talking about some weird custom CSV variants to support multi-lines for example or any other "I want to fit a circle in a square" mentality. I don't know why people doesn't simply create TSV file (Tab-separated). No characters espacing mess. MUCHHH easier to parse. EDIT: Formatting
• uxcn 7y ago
  awk, sed, cut, etc... are excellent as long as the format is regular and you only need to process the file once
  • deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]