Question

I got a CSV dump from SQL Server 2008 that has lines like this:

Plumbing,196222006P,REPLACE LEAD WATER SERVICE W/1" COPPER,1996-08-09 00:00:00
Construction,197133031B,"MORGAN SHOES" ALT,1997-05-13 00:00:00
Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE, "OUTLETS"",1997-05-15 00:00:00
Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE, "OUTLETS" FOOBAR",1997-05-15 00:00:00
Construction,198120036B,"""MERITER"",""DO IT CTR"", ""NCR"" AND ""TRACE"" ALTERATION",1998-04-30 00:00:00

parse_dbenhur is pretty, but can it be rewritten to support the presence of both commas and quotes? parse_ugly is, well, ugly.

# @dbenhur's excellent answer, which works 100% for what i originally asked for
SEP = /(?:,|\Z)/
QUOTED = /"([^"]*)"/
UNQUOTED = /([^,]*)/
FIELD = /(?:#{QUOTED}|#{UNQUOTED})#{SEP}/
def parse_dbenhur(line)
  line.scan(FIELD)[0...-1].map{ |matches| matches[0] || matches[1] }
end

def parse_ugly(line)
  dumb_fields = line.chomp.split(',').map { |v| v.gsub(/\s+/, ' ') }
  fields = []
  open = false
  dumb_fields.each_with_index do |v, i|
    open ? fields.last.concat(v) : fields.push(v)
    open = (v.start_with?('"') and (v.count('"') % 2 == 1) and dumb_fields[i+1] and dumb_fields[i+1].start_with?(' ')) || (open and !v.end_with?('"'))
  end
  fields.map { |v| (v.start_with?('"') and v.end_with?('"')) ? v[1..-2] : v }
end

lines = []
lines << 'Plumbing,196222006P,REPLACE LEAD WATER SERVICE W/1" COPPER,1996-08-09 00:00:00'
lines << 'Construction,197133031B,"MORGAN SHOES" ALT,1997-05-13 00:00:00'
lines << 'Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE, "OUTLETS"",1997-05-15 00:00:00'
lines << 'Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE, "OUTLETS" FOOBAR",1997-05-15 00:00:00'
lines << 'Construction,198120036B,"""MERITER"",""DO IT CTR"", ""NCR"" AND ""TRACE"" ALTERATION",1998-04-30 00:00:00'

require 'csv'
lines.each do |line|
  puts
  puts line
  begin
    c = CSV.parse_line(line)
    puts "#{c.to_csv.chomp} (size #{c.length})"
  rescue
    puts "FasterCSV says: #{$!}"
  end
  a = parse_ugly(line)
  puts "#{a.to_csv.chomp} (size #{a.length})"
  b = parse_dbenhur(line)
  puts "#{b.to_csv.chomp} (size #{b.length})"
end

Here’s the output when I run it:

Plumbing,196222006P,REPLACE LEAD WATER SERVICE W/1" COPPER,1996-08-09 00:00:00
FasterCSV says: Illegal quoting in line 1.
Plumbing,196222006P,"REPLACE LEAD WATER SERVICE W/1"" COPPER",1996-08-09 00:00:00 (size 4)
Plumbing,196222006P,"REPLACE LEAD WATER SERVICE W/1"" COPPER",1996-08-09 00:00:00 (size 4)

Construction,197133031B,"MORGAN SHOES" ALT,1997-05-13 00:00:00
FasterCSV says: Unclosed quoted field on line 1.
Construction,197133031B,"""MORGAN SHOES"" ALT",1997-05-13 00:00:00 (size 4)
Construction,197133031B,"""MORGAN SHOES"" ALT",1997-05-13 00:00:00 (size 4)

Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE, "OUTLETS"",1997-05-15 00:00:00
FasterCSV says: Missing or stray quote in line 1
Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE ""OUTLETS""",1997-05-15 00:00:00 (size 4)
Electrical,197135021E,"""SERVICE"," ""OUTLETS""""",1997-05-15 00:00:00 (size 5)

Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE, "OUTLETS" FOOBAR",1997-05-15 00:00:00
FasterCSV says: Missing or stray quote in line 1
Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE ""OUTLETS"" FOOBAR",1997-05-15 00:00:00 (size 4)
Electrical,197135021E,"""SERVICE"," ""OUTLETS"" FOOBAR""",1997-05-15 00:00:00 (size 5)

Construction,198120036B,"""MERITER"",""DO IT CTR"", ""NCR"" AND ""TRACE"" ALTERATION",1998-04-30 00:00:00
Construction,198120036B,"""MERITER"",""DO IT CTR"", ""NCR"" AND ""TRACE"" ALTERATION",1998-04-30 00:00:00 (size 4)
Construction,198120036B,"""""MERITER""","""DO IT CTR"""," """"NCR"""" AND """"TRACE"""" ALTERATION""",1998-04-30 00:00:00 (size 6)
Construction,198120036B,"""""""MERITER""""","""""DO IT CTR"""""," """"NCR"""" AND """"TRACE"""" ALTERATION""",1998-04-30 00:00:00 (size 6)

UPDATE

Note that the CSV uses double quotes when a field has a comma.

UPDATE 2

It’s fine if commas are stripped out of the fields in question… my parse_ugly method doesn’t preserve them.

UPDATE 3

I learned from the client that it’s SQL Server 2008 that’s exporting this strange CSV – which has been reported to Microsoft here and here

UPDATE 4

@dbenhur’s answer worked perfectly for what I originally asked for, but pointed out that I neglected to show lines with both commas and quotes. I will accept d@benhur’s answer – but I’m hoping it can be improved to work on all lines above.

HOPEFULLY FINAL UPDATE

This code works (and I would consider it “semantically correct”):

QUOTED = /"((?:[^"]|(?:""(?!")))*)"/
SEPQ = /,(?! )/
UNQUOTED = /([^,]*)/
SEPU = /,(?=(?:[^ ]|(?: +[^",]*,)))/
FIELD = /(?:#{QUOTED}#{SEPQ})|(?:#{UNQUOTED}#{SEPU})|\Z/

def parse_sql_server_2008_csv_line(line)
  line.scan(FIELD)[0...-1].map{ |matches| (matches[0] || matches[1]).tr(',', ' ').gsub(/\s+/, ' ') }
end

Adapted from @dbenhur and @ghostdog74’s answer in How can I process a CSV file with “bad commas”?

Answer 1

The following uses regexp and String#scan. I observe that in the broken CSV format you’re dealing with, that " only has quoting properties when it comes at the beginning and end of a field.

Scan moves through the string successively matching the regexp, so the regexp can assume its start match point is the beginning of a field. We construct the regexp so it can match a balanced quoted field with no internal quotes (QUOTED) or a string of non-commas (UNQUOTED). When either alternative field representation is matched, it must be followed by a separator which can be either comma or end of string (SEP)

Because UNQUOTED can match a zero length field before a separator, the scan always matches an empty field at the end which we discard with [0...-1]. Scan produces an array of tuples; each tuple is an array of the capture groups, so we map over each element picking the captured alternate with matches[0] || matches[1].

None of your example lines show a field which contains both a comma and a quote — I have no idea how it would be legally represented and this code probably wont recognize such a field correctly.

SEP = /(?:,|\Z)/
QUOTED = /"([^"]*)"/
UNQUOTED = /([^,]*)/

FIELD = /(?:#{QUOTED}|#{UNQUOTED})#{SEP}/

def ugly_parse line
  line.scan(FIELD)[0...-1].map{ |matches| matches[0] || matches[1] }
end

lines.each do |l|
  puts l
  puts ugly_parse(l).inspect
  puts
end

# Electrical,197135021E,"SERVICE, OUTLETS",1997-05-15 00:00:00
# ["Electrical", "197135021E", "SERVICE, OUTLETS", "1997-05-15 00:00:00"]
# 
# Plumbing,196222006P,REPLACE LEAD WATER SERVICE W/1" COPPER,1996-08-09 00:00:00
# ["Plumbing", "196222006P", "REPLACE LEAD WATER SERVICE W/1\" COPPER", "1996-08-09 00:00:00"]
# 
# Construction,197133031B,"MORGAN SHOES" ALT,1997-05-13 00:00:00
# ["Construction", "197133031B", "MORGAN SHOES\" ALT", "1997-05-13 00:00:00"]