[Tutor] Wanted: module to parse out a CSV line

[Terry Carroll]

On Wed, 11 Dec 2002, andy surany wrote:

> Is there an advantage to using something like asv or csv over opening
> the file, reading each line, and using string.split (line_contents,
> ',')?

The biggest reasons are that you want to handle a fiels that may or may
not be surrounded by quotes, and that may have embedded commas.

For example, consider the string:

  "Programming Python","Lutz, Mark",1-56592-197-6

A good CSV module will parse this into three elements:
  Programming Python
  Lutz, Mark
  1-56592-197-6

A plain old comma-split will parse it into four elements, and leave the
quote marks:

  "Programming Python"
  "Lutz
   Mark"
  1-56592-197-6


-- 
Terry Carroll        |
Santa Clara, CA      |   "The parties are advised to chill."
carroll@tjc.com      |       - Mattel, Inc. v. MCA Records, Inc.,
Modell delendus est  |         no. 98-56577 (9th Cir. July 24, 2002)