Using DATA in example code tells me nothing about the *real* source for the data. It can be a log file or a database or a process that pipes otther sources into a (stream of) single lines of log that have no line endings at all.

To *me* thinking out of that box has caused me to sometime be overprotective and think out of the box. It not only makes many lines in my code show more explicit what the intent is, but it also protects against the other ways in what this data can be supplied (in the future).

Be liberal on the recieving end and be strict on the producing end.

Been there, done that: you have no idea how completely valid CSV files get corrupted by people in the chain that want to "check" the content using a spreadsheet program like Excel and instead of exiting hit "OK" when the program asks them to write the changed data even if the change is just widening the column or changing the font.