[Zope] Comma delimited file and the re python object

[Martijn Faassen]

Stephan Richter wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 04 Nov 1999, Max M wrote:
> > I am trying to import a comma delimited ascii file via Python.
> >
> > naturally the pattern: , will not work as there might be a comma inside the
> > text.
> >
> > the pattern "," wont work either as there as the numbers are not enclosed in
> > quotes.
> >
> > There must be a simple pattern doing it right but I cannot seem to figure it
> > out myself.

> Look, then your datafile is corrupt. If you have commas in the text fields then
>  commas as seperator does not work. Period.

Not if all fields were delimited by double quotes ("). The algorithm
would still be fairly simple then. But now numbers *aren't* enclosed by
quotes, which makes it rather more complicated to write, but it's still
possible.

This would get even more complicated if you do have escaped \" in
strings. :)

> Choose another delimitor such as
> TAB. I wrote a long while back a parser for these things. It is trivial. Just a
> few lines of code.

If you can choose your own datafile, that's best way to do it. If you
already have a datafile that you can't control, you need to convert it
to a tab delimited file first, for which you'd use Python, and you're
stuck with the same problem. ;)

Anyway, if you need more help with Python I'd suggest looking in
comp.lang.python. Possibly there are modules you can download that do
this, too, at www.python.org.

Regards,

Martijn