Re: Splitting a line on just commas

Response: I'd go the Text::CSV route, but this might help get you started

use strict;

   sub main{
      my $text   = qq{a,b,"hey, you","str1, str2, str3",end};
      print "Input: $text\n\n";

      # Split the delimiters
      my @values = split( /(?:\,|(\".*?\"))/ , $text);
      
      # Remove the created blanks
      @values    = grep{$_ ne ''} @values;
      
      # Output
      foreach (0..$#values){
          print "$_: $values[$_] \n";
      }
   }
   
   main();
[download]

Output:

Input: a,b,"hey, you","str1, str2, str3",end

0: a
1: b
2: "hey, you"
3: "str1, str2, str3"
4: end
[download]

Thoughts: I haven't really thought why the blanks are being created - if you take away the grep, you'll see what I'm talking about. I still advise using Text::CSV because using this grep method will remove wanted blanks. Therefore, the above code has structural integrity problems.

Example: a,b,,d,e
You probably really want that space holder there if you're going to be inserting this into a database. The grep would remove it because it has a blank string value ("").

Demize

Comment on Re: Splitting a line on just commas Select or Download Code

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Re^2: Splitting a line on just commas by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 14, 2010 at 17:39 UTC
Ouch! Misusing `split`, which you attempt to fix by filtering out empty strings, which leads to warnings and the removal of empty fields. `Thing being separated vvvvvvv /(?:\,\|(\".*?\"))/ ^^ Separator` [download] How are those two things on equal footing?	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^3: Splitting a line on just commas by deMize (Monk) on Jun 14, 2010 at 17:51 UTC
Response: I was about to say, you might want to remove all the undefined created by the unmatched parens, before removing the blank fields. `@values = grep{defined} @values; @values = grep{$_ ne ''} @values;` [download] or `@values = grep{defined && $_ ne ''} @values;` [download] Again, I would not use this method. It's not good to remove blank string values. As for the equal footing, would this be any less equal: `/(?:\,)\|(\".?\")/` Update:* I did forget to include the trailing comma after the quotes, but I still wouldn't use it: `/\,\|(?:(\".*?\")\,)/` Demize	[reply] [d/l] [select]
Re^4: Splitting a line on just commas by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 14, 2010 at 18:05 UTC
The point is that there's no point if removing the extra stuff if you extract the fields right in the first place. It's already been shown how to do that.	[reply]
Re^5: Splitting a line on just commas by deMize (Monk) on Jun 14, 2010 at 18:17 UTC
Re^6: Splitting a line on just commas by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 14, 2010 at 19:13 UTC
Re^6: Splitting a line on just commas by ikegami (Patriarch) on Jun 14, 2010 at 19:15 UTC


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